Leave Out All The Rest
by Toxic Hathor
Summary: {Repost} - {Seto Kaiba/Yami Yugi} - {Prideshipping} - Why does Yami live with his father? Why is he left-handed? Why is he a drug addict? Why does he wear a choker to school? And why is he always in full-sleeves even in gym classes? If you don't know the answers to these questions, Seto, then you have no right to judge him.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Wow…

I cannot believe I am doing this. But after like…what, 2 years of people sending me PMs asking for a repost, I simply cannot ignore the guilty feeling anymore...that someone actually wants to read and I took down my fics from all over the internet.

So here we go…

I can't even remember what exactly I said at the beginning of this story as warnings. So let's recall together, shall we?

**Warnings:** Angst, child abuse, non-con situations, self-harm/injury, drug abuse…

Did I miss something? We'll recall along the way, then, shall we?

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter One**

"Repeat the oath after me please. I…"

"I…"

"Your names, please."

"Seto Kaiba." …"Téa Gardner."

"In the presence of the Principal, Supervisor, my teachers and fellow students…"

"In the presence of the Principal, Supervisor, my teachers and fellow students…"

"Promise to carry out the responsibilities and duties of…"

"Promise to carry out the responsibilities and duties of…"

"Your posts please…"

"Head Boy." … "Head Girl."

"Of Domino High School, with sincerity and integrity."

"Of Domino High School, with sincerity and integrity."

"I promise to uphold the traditions of my school, to be loyal to it and to abide by its rules…"

"I promise to uphold the traditions of my school, to be loyal to it and to abide by its rules…"

"I promise to set an example to my fellow students with my conduct, responsibility and respect for my teachers…"

"I promise to set an example to my fellow students with my conduct, responsibility and respect for my teachers…"

"So help me God."

"So help me God."

"I now call upon the Head Boy for the present academic year, to receive his badge."

Seto walked with sure, steady and unwavering paces to the podium, where the Principal attached a small, white badge to the sash he was wearing. A white, tiny, plastic object giving him as much power in school as the one he had at his work.

After the badge was attached to his sash, Seto looked up to the Principal who grinned widely at him, expectation filling his wrinkled and ageing eyes. "Good job, son."

Seto gave back a small smile and headed back to his place as Mr. Michael Davidson, the school's Supervisor, who had been calling out the oath, said, "I now call upon the Head Girl for the present academic year, to receive her badge."

Seto Kaiba was the perfect example of every teacher's favorite student and the best candidate for the Head Boy post, for the respect the other students held for him…

He knew what accepting such a post meant. It meant more responsibility hauled onto his shoulders other than his responsibilities towards his younger brother and his responsibilities towards his post as CEO of the world's largest gaming technologies company.

But he also knew that it would give him enough power to control ruffians in their school…

Speaking of which…

* * *

"Condensation polymerization occurs in hydrocarbons, when some elements of the monomers combine together to exclude simpler molecules, such as water or carbon dioxide, and hence joining together to form the poly…"

Mrs. Harold's explanation stopped abruptly when the door burst open with a huge bang. Seto frowned in displeasure at seeing the person who came in; the person having spiky, multi-colored hair, tanned skin, skin-tight uniform that left nothing to imagination of others of both genders, studded boots that went against the school regulations, a choker around a slim neck and the most unruly and wild and disobedient and exotic pair of crimson eyes Seto had ever seen in his entire life.

Mrs. Harold stared at her watch and raised an eyebrow, "Wow, Yami, you're making an improvement in your late timings to class. Twenty minutes late…it was fifteen last time."

Yami Motou, Domino High's most disobedient and defiant student, quirked an elegant eyebrow and his weird, red eyes gleamed as he obviously experienced the lovely effects of whatever drug he'd injected himself with before showing up and said, "I didn't know you took down the timings… wow, I'll give you an A!" and he giggled drunkenly, and said, "Anyway, I'm working on achieving not showing up at all…"

"Well, then I must help you out; if you plan on showing up late next time, don't bother about dropping in and just don't show up at all!"

Yami nodded and narrowed his eyes a bit, muttering, "We have a deal, dudette…"

And he took his seat…

Seto watched him from the corner of his eyes, scanning the person sitting a few seats across from him.

He watched in silence as Yami took out a random notebook with weird, gruesome designs drawn on it and started to silently doodle inside on one of the pages, not paying attention or caring about the Organic Chemistry lesson being taught.

Seto shook his head and turned away; people might think that only it was because he's still in the heat of receiving his badge that he's thinking like that…but they were wrong, those who thought that.

Even before he knew he was picked as the lucky candidate for the Head-Boy badge, he always wished he would set Yami Motou straight.

The guy was addicted to rule breaking! Every year, he made sure that his uniform is a size or two smaller than his real size. And even when he shows up in school causing a hell of a controversy because of the tightness of the uniform, it wasn't like he stuck to the proper version of the said uniform. Those studded boots, with belts and buckles going all around them and the trousers of the uniform tucked in them, as well as the choker going around his neck, never were and never will be a part of the school uniform.

And even in gym classes, he refused to wear the proper uniform, showing up each time with long-sleeved shirts to piss their coach off, not caring that, each time, he lost ten marks from gym class.

And he wasn't just addicted to rule breaking. That wasn't even half the problem! He was a hardcore heroin addict. It was common knowledge, just like everyone knew when the lunch hour is, they knew that Yami was a heroin addict.

However, in spite of all of that, he, surprisingly, passed every test with a somewhat acceptable grade. And we say acceptable, because at the rate he missed classes and ignored questions in the classes he graces with his presence, it would be acceptable (even more than that) to score 15 out of 20 in almost every test.

He didn't have friends. He just wandered around from class to class with his bag dragged behind him like a disobedient puppy as people left him alone, questioning his sanity.

And now, as Seto shook himself out of his staring trance, Yami signed his name on whatever he'd doodled on in his notebook with his left hand and looked up when the bell rang. He gave another smack-stoned grin to Mrs. Harold and hit his chest twice with his fist then drew it away, putting up his index and middle fingers in the traditional, peace-out sign, and he said while winking with one of his strange, kohl-rimmed crimson eyes, "Peace out, dudester!"

Seto's eyes widened at his audacity and he shook his head as he gathered his things.

* * *

A/N: So here it is…

New readers, welcome. Old readers…welcome back as well…

I will be updating this every Monday at 8PM Egypt Local Timing. As you all know, I have it all written out :D

Enjoy it…

Hathor…


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** For warnings, refer the first chapter.

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Two**

Seto watched Yami from a distance and planned his moves. Nice and slow. He didn't want to rush things like all of the school's teachers did. Attack without planning…completely irresponsible and wrong when dealing with Yami's kind.

Seto planned. He always did. And that was how he planned on bringing Yami down and force him to obey. He watched and observed little things, that when Yami was alone, he always did something inside that notebook of his and that he was left-handed. He noticed that he often touched his left arm and stared off into space with a sad, dreamy look. He noticed that when he's not speaking to anyone to irritate whoever the poor soul is, he'd stay quiet and withdrawn away from the world, not even watching anyone.

However, towards the end of the third period of the next day to the Prefects' Investiture Ceremony, Seto noticed that Yami started watching someone with an evil grin on his face. That someone was Michael Abraham, some boy in their class.

Seto frowned and followed Yami around; he _had_ to find out what Yami was up to. To his utter worry, he found him hanging around Téa Gardner, flirting with her and whispering something in her ear every once in a while. She seemed to be ignoring him and carrying on with her way, but every now and then, she'd stop, hiss something his way and go on once again.

And, as a result of Yami's actions, Seto also noticed that Michael Abraham was eyeing Yami with an if-looks-could-kill kind of look at the way he tailed Téa around like her shadow. Seto didn't blame him, Téa had confided to him in one of their conversations that she loved Michael to bits, and she's sure he does too, but he doesn't want to take a move.

Seto stepped forward when Yami touched Téa's shoulder and stopped her from walking, fearing that the crazy rascal was going to hit her or harm her in any way. He and Téa were friends, good friends to that, too. He would never allow any harm to befall her.

And Yami touching her, even looking at her for more than a millisecond, made him blister in anger.

But before he could reach both of them, Michael had beat him to it and grabbed Yami by the upper arm, and tore him away from Téa, slamming him into the wall. Seto watched in satisfaction as Yami winced in pain, while Michael hissed at him, "Listen, punk. If you ever so much as look at her again, the Medical Examiner would have to use your dental records to identify your body when I am done with it. Are we fucking clear on that?"

Téa was flushed bright red, but Seto noticed she was looking at Yami with worry. He stared in wonder as Michael ignored Yami totally and turned to Téa, asking her in concern, "Are you okay? Did he hurt you in any way? I swear I'll pound him into next week if he…"

"No, no, it's okay, I'm fine." She said quickly, placing a hand on his, tugging him away from Yami.

Michael treated Yami like he didn't exist at all and gently placed a hand on Téa's upper arm, wrapping the other arm around her shoulder to lead her out of the corridor they were currently standing in.

Michael never noticed Yami again, but Seto did.

And he frowned in confusion when he saw Yami grinning triumphantly as he watched Téa and Michael walk away from him.

* * *

Seto couldn't get his mind off Yami for the rest of the week. There was a temporary lie-low from the spiky-haired rascal, but Seto narrowed his eyes whenever he thought of that and he could bet his life that it was only the calm before the storm, as they said.

And true enough, a few days after the incident with Téa and Michael, people came running out of the cafeteria, girls eww-ing and screaming in horror and boys having disgust on their faces, barely keeping themselves from screaming as well.

Seto frowned and broke into a run and arrived in front of the cafeteria's doors just in time to see Yami turning around, a sly grin on his face. "What have you done?" Seto asked him coldly, blocking his escape route, the one he went on the moment he saw the ice-cold expression in Seto's eyes.

"Out of my way, Head-Boy!" Yami said with a bright, mischievous, self-satisfied smile, staring up in defiance into Seto's eyes.

"You are not going anywhere but the Principal's office in the near future," Seto said, once again blocking Yami's way when he tried to dodge him. "What have you done to the cafeteria?"

"I spread it around that there's rodent-infestation in it." Yami said with a huge grin, very pleased with himself.

"Come with me, you irritating little brat," Seto said with narrowed eyes, grabbing Yami's upper arm and dragging him away from the cafeteria, towards the stairs that led to Mr. James Paul's office.

* * *

The incident resulted in Yami suspension for three days.

Seto walked into school at the fourth day, wanting to see whether getting suspended affected Yami in any way. But to his irritation, Yami didn't even show up for school for about two more days, which were followed by the weekend. The irritating, little midget, Seto thought. As if he was showing everyone that he didn't give a shit about school, as if he was saying something like: "The break you've given me from school isn't enough so I'll give myself two more days off before the weekend." Seto was fuming in frustration.

On Monday, though, during the Physics class, after about ten minutes passed, the door banged open and Seto frowned when he saw Yami barge into the classroom. He didn't even acknowledge the teacher who glared at him. He just walked inside, ignoring the man as if he didn't exist. However, when the man sternly spoke, he stopped and looked over his shoulder, "Why are you late Yami?"

Seto's frown deepened when Yami narrowed his crimson eyes and hissed coldly, "I was getting my drugs from my dealer. Will you let me sit or do I make things easier for you and me and get out?" Everyone in Domino High knew that Yami was an addict because he never made it a secret, whenever a teacher asked, he'd say that he was getting his drugs from his dealer. Simple!

Seto often wondered why one of the teachers didn't just grab Yami by the arm and drag him over to the Principal's office to call the police and chuck him in jail for good for how he openly announced his addiction. But then again, most of the teachers weren't eviler than taking a few marks off the Continuous Assessment marks. And besides, everyone was _sure_ Yami never gave his drugs to anyone else. He was an addict, but surprisingly, he didn't help others acquire drugs in any way except when he paid his dealer for his stuff.

Seto's thoughts were interrupted when the Physics teacher snapped, "If that's the attitude you're going to sport, you'll have to meet me after school for detention, Yami. Take your seat. I'll see you after school."

Seto watched Yami's expressions as he made an exasperated –and latently desperate and scared- face at the man and ignored him as he walked to the back of the class, where he slumped down noisily, taking his doodle-notebook (as Seto called it) out.

The rest of the day passed in moderate peace. Seto watched Yami from a distance and wondered why he looked so tired. It was most probably the drugs. Towards the end of the day, he saw Téa walking with Michael out of the Chemistry Lab, both of them holding hands. Seto watched them with puzzlement, wondering what finally made Michael move on and hook both of them up.

Téa obviously saw his looks, and grinned, mouthing, "Later," at him.

* * *

Seto did something very odd that day.

After the school day ended, instead of driving to his work's headquarters, he stayed behind, waiting for Yami to finish his detention. He didn't even know why he did that. But he later came to know that he did the right thing.

Because the moment he saw Yami come out of the Physics lab, uttering curses under his breath and dragging his bag in the same, disobedient-puppy manner, he had started moving out of his hiding place to speak to Yami and find out what the hell his problem was.

But he stopped and retreated back to his place when he saw Téa heading towards Yami, concern written all over her face.

He frowned in confusion and strained his ears to hear them talk.

Téa was saying, "What's wrong? Why did you miss more than the three days?"

Yami shrugged and Seto's mouth dropped open at seeing that the mischievousness was all gone, replaced by a harmless, kitten-like expression, as he answered, "Don't worry about it…"

"Shut up, I _want_ to worry about it. After that stupid stunt that had you sent home for three days…what the hell were you thinking?"

"Well, you and Michael hooked-up, didn't you?" Yami replied and Seto's eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Yeah, we did, and I am dying of happiness that we did but I didn't want you to get turned into minced beef just so I can hook up with Michael! Do you realize that he was a few seconds away from beating you senseless that day?"

Seto was getting more and more confused by the second.

"Téa, calm down, nothing happened; I'm okay, I'm glad you hooked-up, it was well worth the effort," Yami was replying to her, grinning widely. Seto watched his facial expressions and noticed for the first time the worn, tired expressions and the paleness that unnaturally overtook the tanned skin.

"Yami, what the hell?"

"Listen, I think I already messed things up badly at home with getting detention and getting late. I really have to go," Yami said, staring at his watch and adjusting his choker uncomfortably.

Téa watched him for a while, then nodded and said in a low voice that Seto barely caught, "Yami, please, be careful. I know it's hard, but please take care."

He nodded and walked away, his bag dragged behind him like a disobedient puppy.

Seto waited till he was sure that Yami was out of earshot then he moved out of his hiding place and spoke, startling Téa, making her gasp and place a hand on her heart, "We need to talk."

And he wrapped his hand around her wrist, dragging her to the gym…


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** sorry for the lateness, I was out getting some errands.

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Three**

"No…how much did you hear?" Téa protested with a venomous hiss, trying to yank her hand out of Seto's iron-like grip.

"Enough to want to find out what you were talking about with that punk!" Seto said, tightening his hold slightly and leading the way to the gym. He was so furious right now, since he didn't understand a single thing of what he'd just overheard.

"It's none of your…_business_!" she said angrily, scowling heavily and hissing out the last part of what she was saying. Seto ignored her and opened the gym's door and pushed her inside the spacious gym. "Seto, I'm serious, what the hell's wrong with you?"

"What the hell were you two talking about? Why were you even speaking to him? Don't you know how dangerous that brat is? He could very easily…"

"I could very easily punch you right now," Téa interrupted him with narrowed blue eyes much like his own. Seto frowned and was going to say something else when Téa once again interrupted with a sneer on her pretty features, "Who the hell do you think you are? What's your problem whether I speak to Yami or not?"

"Téa, that boy is…"

"You didn't even speak to _that boy_ more than one time, so don't even give yourself the right to speak one word about him in a bad way!" she interrupted for the third time.

"Téa, I want to know what you two were talking about." Seto said, feeling angrier and more frustrated by the moment, not only by the fact that he didn't know anything about why Téa was jumping to defend Yami like that and what both of them were talking about, but also by the fact that it was the first time in his life that he got interrupted three times in less than five minutes.

"And I told you that it's none of your business." Téa repeated coldly, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Just…what were you asking him, just tell me?"

"I was asking why he missed two more days of school in addition to the three he was suspended for." Téa said coldly and turned on her heels, trying to leave the gym.

"Why's he in trouble because he got detention, what did he mean?" Seto insisted, desperate now.

"Jeez, why would I tell you? So you could use it to humiliate him? Dream on," Téa said and left him in the gym, standing motionless, aggravated and desperate to find out her and Yami's secret.

* * *

Over the next two days, Seto was officially declared insomniac. He just couldn't get any sleep; too many thoughts of a certain, crimson-eyed problem, who dropped the law-breaking façade when no one was around to become a harmless person, dominated his every thought.

He decided to become Yami's unseen shadow, tailing him everywhere without the other teenager knowing. He even knew that his drug-dealer was Bakura, not any other dealer in their school.

He also noticed things that he would never have noticed before; noticed that when Yami came down from the heroin's high, he'd withdraw into himself totally, ignoring the entire world. He also noticed that when Yami got like that, the only thing to get him out of this state was a person bumping into him by mistake. Which brought up a lot of questions as well, as Seto would see a flash of unbearable pain, followed by a hollow, lifeless and dull expression, as if Yami was trying to separate himself from his body or something.

"Mr. Kaiba, please pay attention." Seto snapped out of his thoughts of and staring at Yami, who, to his irritation, was staring right at him with a raised eyebrow.

Seto looked away after giving Yami a brief glare. He focused his attention on the lesson, trying to avoid being scolded again.

* * *

The next day, Seto walked into school, only to have Téa breathlessly running up to him and saying, "Mr. Paul wants us to start organizing whatever needs to be organized for those environmentalists coming next week."

Seto frowned in confusion, "Wasn't the environment-club supposed to present the whole thing? The Student Council offered their help then and they said they will handle the event?!"

"Seto, you know Mr. Paul; he keeps everything till the last minute before he puts it onto people's shoulders. Those dorks told him that they were going to leave us with the responsibility of the setting up of everything about a week ago. He's informing us only now!"

"So what are we going to do about it?" Seto asked, running a hand through his hair.

"We'll delegate people, let's meet up with the rest of the prefect body and we'll see what happens." She said, walking with him into the building.

"Okay, go call the girls for a meeting, I'll get the boys."

Within an hour, they had a plan running and the badge-holders were already running around Domino High as they're often seen. Seto got distracted for the next couple of days, then got back to thinking of Yami after a certain incident.

He had been walking down the corridor leading to the photocopier when he saw Téa standing with Yami in a corner. He was handing her a large plastic bag, and was saying in a low voice, "I did it."

Seto, with an awful sense of déjà vu overwhelming him, hid in an empty janitor's closet, where he could clearly see both Yami and Téa from where he stood, but they couldn't.

Téa was taking out a collection of charts and pictures and such from the bag and was smiling widely as she browsed quickly through them. Seto's eyes left Téa's features to rest on Yami's nervous ones and he frowned deeply when he saw that the exotic crimson eyes weren't rimmed by the usual, dark kohl, but were instead red-rimmed and dulled over.

His attention was driven away from Yami when Téa spoke, "How did you manage to get it done?"

"It's okay, I managed; no big deal." Yami mumbled in a low voice, looking down at his studded, metal-soled boots, shrugging uncertainly.

Seto frowned even more when he saw the brightening-up of Yami's eyes, but not of happiness, but of tears. Téa, obviously, noticed as well. She put the work, which Seto now realized was the content of the entire school's display boards, back into the bag and tapped her index finger under Yami's chin to make him look up into her eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I don't wanna bother you with it."

"I wanna be bothered with it."

"No, Téa…please, I feel so whiny and irritating when I keep rambling about it."

"Yami, you don't speak about it unless I force it out of you. You don't 'keep rambling' about it!" she said gently and Seto ached to know what 'it' was. God, he wanted answers. And he wanted them _now_!

"Téa, please…" Yami whimpered out and tried to dodge her.

But to Seto's surprise, Téa placed a hand on Yami's shoulder and pushed him back into the wall, pinning him there. "Stay there!" she hissed firmly, and Seto was amazed to see that the person who gave all teachers hell as they tried to get him to obey the simplest of commands, was now standing quiet and subdued in front of Téa just because she told him to. "Yes, now talk."

"Téa…he…he killed Chixo…"

Seto's frown turned confused, while Téa gasped loudly. Yami had his head down, his spiky bangs falling into his eyes, but Seto's sharp, attentive eyes caught the crystalline tears sliding down the curve of Yami's sharp jaw line and falling down to break into a million of tiny droplets on the floor.

Seto couldn't believe it; who the hell was Chixo? And why the hell was Yami crying his heart out over whoever it is? And who killed Chixo? _And who the hell is Chixo!_

"He did _what_!" Téa said in disbelief.

"I woke up today morning to…oh God…she was lying there, all bloody…and God, Téa, he killed her! Her fur was all red, all the white turned red…" Yami was hysterically sobbing, his hands shaking frantically as he tried to brush away his tears.

Seto felt his own eyes pricking at the whole situation and although he didn't know what fucking species Chixo was, but it still touched him so much, seeing Yami like that.

"Oh Yami…" Téa was saying in a low voice that Seto barely heard, then she dropped the bag and wrapped her arms around Yami, hugging him tightly.

But, again, Seto was astonished to see Yami pushing her away gently, saying, "Don't, anyone might see you. And what would Michael think?"

"Yami, I don't give a shit…he killed her?"

"I give a shit, I don't want people to see you with me," Yami interrupted her, stepping away from the comfort Seto was sure he needed so badly at the moment. He wiped his face away with determination and said, "Go put those up." He said, pointing to the bag which lay forgotten on the floor. "And remember, not a word to anyone."

And with that, he walked away, leaving her with tears coursing down her face in torrents and Seto with another tremendous pile of questions above the ones he already had.

* * *

At the end of that day, Seto waited till his duties were over and went searching the school for Téa. He thankfully found her beside the main display board, putting up a very colorful display about Global Warming.

He stood in silence beside the board and crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaning against the wall and watched her in silence, wondering how he was going to get the answers he wanted out of her.

"What do you want, Seto?" she asked tiredly, pushing onto the trigger of the stapler and attaching a picture onto the board. "Why aren't you at work?"

"I finished everything in advance so I'd have today off." Seto answered her distractedly. There was silence except for the resounding sound of the stapler for the next minute, before he gathered up his guts to ask, "What's Chixo?"

She froze.

Seto stayed silent and watched as she turned to face him, her blue eyes narrowing, "Why do you insist on eavesdropping? And why are you following me anyway?"

"I'm not following you, I'm following Yami. And trust me, today it was by mistake that I stumbled on both of you. Hell, last time too was a mistake." Seto answered her calmly, praying that she'd tell him something to work with. _Anything_! "And I insist on 'accidentally' eavesdropping because I want to know if Yami is as bratty and attention-seeking as he shows."

"Don't speak of him like that!" Téa said in a venomous, irritated, low-toned voice.

"Why?"

"Because you don't know anything about him."

"Then tell me. I want to know, I want to hear about it." Seto said uncrossing his arms and shrugging.

"Why?" it was Téa's turn to ask that, as she dropped the stapler and crossed her arms defiantly in front of her.

"Because what I heard the other day and from what I heard today, my whole idea of Yami started collapsing. And I want to know whether he is as bad as I think he is or not." Seto answered her truthfully. He wanted to help Yami, if he needed help. For some strange reason and some strange feeling (which was _not_ pity), he felt that he was now responsible for helping Yami if he needed help.

"People think they know so much about others, while in reality, they just…they're all blind." Téa said suddenly after a while in which she stared into his eyes searchingly. She grabbed something from the bag lying beside the wall and stapled it on. Seto was silent, watching the different items on display.

Téa obviously saw his looks, so she sighed and said, "Yami made all of this." And she waved her hand around, indicating the board they stood beside and the one across the corridor from it, and every other in that corridor. Seto looked at her disbelievingly, so she laughed bitterly and nodded, saying, "All of it."

"If he's so good at this, then why can't he just stop being such a disobedient brat? I mean, if he can do something as fantastic as this, then why can't he just behave properly? Whatever problem he's having…"

"God… will you listen to how shallow you are?" Téa interrupted him with contempt and shook her head disgustedly.

"What is so shallow about what I'm saying, Téa?" Seto defended himself heatedly.

"As I said, people think they know everything about others. And you're just like everyone else. You're so fucking blind; you wouldn't be able to see a foot in front of you." Téa said, once again shaking her head.

Seto stared at her in shock; Téa never cussed! To see her do so now, because of Yami, it meant that with every single bad remark he made about the boy, he was screwing up royally!

"You think you know everything about Yami, don't you? Oh, look at the ruffian. How unruly of him. Look at the wrong uniform, look at how irritating and impolite he is…isn't this how you think, Seto?" Téa asked him with narrowed eyes.

Seto blushed heavily and avoided her eyes. "Téa, you have to admit that this is how he acts. He's the one pushing everyone into thinking that of him."

"If you knew Yami as I know him, you'd understand that he is not to be blamed for anything he does." She said calmly, putting the finishing touches to the board and stepping back to admire the final effect. Seto thought about her words, as she gathered the things she needed for the next display board. "You want to know what's up with Yami, right? Why he's so defiant and uncontrollable and unruly?" she asked as he followed her to the next display, which she started on immediately.

He nodded, "I…you're right…I don't know Yami to…judge him. I wanna know…"

"Okay, it's all summed-up in five questions, Seto, answer them and you'll get yourself the reason Yami's the way he is in school," Téa said with a shrug, dragging a chair so she could stand on it. "Could you hand me the heading?"

Seto gave it to her and asked, "So what is the first one?"

"Why does Yami live with his father?" she asked, and took the next part of the heading from him.

Seto shrugged at the weird question and tried to search for anything to drive Yami into law-breaking like that, then said, "For any reason anyone would live with their father? He's the only child, his parents got divorced and his father won the custody battle."

Téa laughed mirthlessly, and said, "No, Seto, it's not as simple as that. Yami wasn't an only child." Seto frowned and stayed silent, quenching his desperation to know what the past-tense use was for. "Yami lives with his dad because his mom killed herself when he was nine after killing his twin brother, Yugi. Both incidents in front of him."

Halfway through Téa's words, Seto's mouth dropped open in shock. "What!"

She looked down at him and shrugged, "Yeah, shocking isn't it?"

"Why would she kill her own…"

"Yeah, well, you see, Yugi was trying to stop her from using Yami as an ashtray for her cigarettes and anything else that could be lit. She was fucked in the head. A lunatic that for some weird reason passed along as a mother for two boys." Téa said the last part with a hiss, putting out her anger into pulling the trigger of the stapler repeatedly, the loud sound resounding in the corridor.

Seto was so confused now. "Téa, what…"

"Okay, she was abusive. Here, you wanted it bluntly," she interrupted him with a calm voice, not even looking at him to see the lost, shocked look on his handsome features. "Yami and Yugi were both her stress-relief, stress from what don't ask me. But Yami was just…I don't know… a bit of a magnet for her wrath. He liked to mess around a lot."

"That's no reason…"

"Duh, Seto, I know that it isn't a reason to kill her son!" she interrupted him, stapling a couple more things. "Yugi tried to stop her, as I already told you, she didn't like getting interrupted, so she stabbed him, while Yami watched, begging her to do it to him instead." She then laughed bitterly and said, "And every single time she drove the knife into Yugi's body, she'd tell Yami that it was his entire fault that that was taking place. Last thing the woman said to her living child was, 'It is all because of you.'"

Seto was speechless. Something really huge blocked his throat and disgust made him dizzy.

"Oh don't look as if you're about to faint yet, Seto, this is just the tip of the iceberg." Téa snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked up at her as she asked, "Okay, question two, why's Yami left-handed?"

"Huh? There's a reason for that too?" Seto blurted out.

"Of course there is." Téa said with a calm grin, getting down from the chair to move onto the lower part of the board. "Yami has severe schizophrenia attacks…"

"Why won't he get treatment?"

Téa laughed mirthlessly again and shook her head, bitterness in her pretty blue eyes, "His dad won't pay the bills for the medication."

"Won't or can't?"

"Won't. Yami's father is really, really rich," she said with a shrug. "Which takes us back to why Yami is left-handed. Once, when he was eleven, he came back from school and was taking a shower, when he had an attack. His dad was downstairs, improving his social life and getting high with his friends at that time. Yami tried to overcome the attack by just repeating, 'no, no, no,' again and again, but this time, it sort of didn't work; the louder he got, the louder the voices in his head telling him horrible things got. After a while, he had screamed his throat hoarse and cried his eyes out, before he drove his hand into the glass shower cabinet, breaking the whole thing along with the bones in his right hand, then he collapsed. I found him the next day unconscious and bleeding in the bathroom, when I sneaked through his window to check on him when he didn't answer the phone."

Seto swallowed back his nausea at what he'd just heard; his guilt was already killing him inside. He bit his lip thoughtfully for a moment before a thought occurred to him, "What about social services?"

"Those morons are just as blind as everyone else. A simple lie, had them shrugging the whole incident off," Téa said with a shrug. "My parents actually offered to pay for the therapy bills, but Yami wouldn't accept no matter what. Slowly, he taught himself how to use his left hand, since the right one's activity was inhibited dramatically. Fucking boring process, but to him, writing and keeping up in class was way more important than hours and hours of boredom."

Seto felt as if he was hit over the head. What he was hearing made him feel like such an asshole. He couldn't believe how guilty he felt now because…just five minutes ago he was convinced that Yami cared about studies and education as much as he cared about a cockroach in the pipes underground.

"Okay, next question, Why's Yami an addict?" Seto stared at her with raised eyebrows, not trusting himself to talk, never mind trying to answer such a thing. "You must have thought that Yami became an addict when he was just 'experimenting new things' as most teenagers fall into the trap drugs weave around them, right?"

Seto blushed and nodded, before hanging his head down in shame.

Téa turned away from him and said, "Well, you're wrong. His dad's also behind the drug issue."

"So both his parents are lunatic?"

"Yep! Basically putting it." Téa affirmed, turning to him and dusting her hands from the glitter that clung to them. "Yami was coming back from school when he was thirteen; he accidentally walked in on his dad and his friends in one of their drug-sessions. They thought it would be fun to see how he'd look like under the influence of drugs. This led to that and after two days, in which his dad's friends stayed at their house, Yami became an addict because his dad held him down while his friend injected him with heroin until they were sure he's a junkie."

"That's…he's his own son for fuck's sake!" Seto hissed in anger, forgetting the common courtesy that a male should never cuss in front of a female.

"As I said earlier, and will say now, this is just the tip of the iceberg; you noticed for sure that Yami missed two days of school after the three he was suspended for, right?" when Seto nodded, she continued, "Well, each time Yami misses school, it's because his dad gets tired of beating the crap out of him, and ties him up to a bed, or any piece of furniture with a pair of rusty handcuffs and withholds the heroin from him. I guess we learnt in Bio that heroin has the worst withdrawal symptoms of all drugs, right?" Téa said with a shrug.

She sighed and gathered up her things to drop them into the Student Council's office, while saying, "His dad keeps him tied up like that until Yami's just a crying, shivering, feverish mess, pleading for the drug. By the time the asshole is bored of that and finally unties him so he could go inject himself with anything to relieve the pain, no matter how much the amount is, Yami would be so damn tired, he usually stays in bed for two or three days after it."

"What the hell is stopping him from informing the police! How can he stand this fucking shit!" Seto burst out angrily. God this was so…inhuman.

"You think it's so simple, just walk up to someone and say that your own flesh and blood treated you like shit?"

"Anything is better than that crap."

"No, Seto, no…" Téa said fervently. "Just…let me carry on and you'll understand why Yami can't just go to the police and tell them everything."

"Once I know everything to this crap, it stops! I'll make sure of that!" Seto yelled in anger.

Téa looked at him in surprise in her blue eyes. "Why do you care so much?"

"Can't I just care?" Seto retaliated defensively with a raised eyebrow, sitting in a chair, crossing his arms in front of his chest while placing one leg over the other.

She stared at him for while longer, then nodded to herself in realization at the anger and utter disgust in his blue eyes, along with another indecipherable expression.

"You have to get him to trust you first, Seto. Before you can help him, and when you realize that what you feel for him is not just pity, you'll have to work harder to get what you want from him."

"What does that mean?"

"Forget it, Seto, now onto the next question, why does Yami wear chokers?"

"I thought they were just for fashion." Seto mumbled, running a hand through his hair.

"No, the one that's for fashion is the uniform," Téa said with a sad smile. "The chokers are to hide bite marks…or what lovers would wish to call love-bites and hickeys."

Seto stared at her blankly, "You kinda lost me in the middle. What are you talking about?"

"When his mom killed herself, someone had to cover up for her duties during the night…" Téa said in a low voice.

Only complete self-control and coordination helped Seto fight the urge to throw up. "Oh God…" he said in revulsion, getting up to try and compose himself further.

"That answers why he is always so distracted and unfocused at doing anything except rambling in his notebook in classes, Seto. Imagine, having to come to school, with not only pains of withdrawal, or weakness induced by the drugs, but also bearing the pains and humiliation and disgust of getting violated in one of the most animalistic and inhuman ways ever? Do you think he'd be able to even stay conscious never mind take part in classes?"

"I understand." Seto said abruptly, his anger barely in check.

"No one can fully understand. Hell, Seto, even I don't fully understand shit. He never tells me full details of what happens, he just says stuff like, dad withheld the drugs from me, he never says since when. He says, dad invited friends over yesterday…what the fuck does that mean and why would he be extra weak and extra wretched about it? He says, dad got mad yesterday, fine, I understand that that means a good, full-hearted pounding, but where is he hurt? Is the pain too much? Why does he come to school…God I'm just too helpless about this whole thing," she said the last part with an angry hiss and hit the wall with her open palm in anger while closing her eyes and letting some tears escape and cascade down her face.

"Some businessmen are pedophiles you know…" Seto commented in a quiet tone. For some reason he assumed Yami's father was a businessman. It only just fit. Seto had been in the field and had seen some of his stepfather's partners earlier too. Some of them were either complete drug junkies or they took a sick interest in children. Téa's story just had the whole thing coming to his mind.

"Oh fuck," she said in horror, her hand rising to her mouth with a sickened expression in her tearful blue eyes. "You think?"

"I am sure." He said, swallowing down with difficulty. She sat down in a chair opposite to his and stayed silent for a bit, so he asked with barely contained anger and disgust and eagerness, "Last question?"

"Why…Why is Yami always in full-sleeves?"

"I used to…think he wears them to…piss Mr. Anderson off?" Seto said, hating himself for thinking like that before. Téa's lips curled and she shook her head so he quickly tried to amend, "Does he wear them to hide bruises?"

"No, this time, the reason is Yami himself not his father." Téa explained and Seto looked at her with a confused frown. "Yami cuts… cuts so deep everyday that he knocks himself out before his dad would walk into his room at night."

"Shit, isn't it enough that he can very easily kill himself with an overdose…God! I can't believe how blind I was!" Téa raised an eyebrow at that, but sat silently, rocking the chair back and forth. Seto was pacing up and down the room like a trapped lion. She'd never seen her friend so angry. He turned to her and asked, "Alright, fine then who is Chixo?"

Téa's eyes filled with tears and she took a deep breath, before saying, "She was Yami's cat. A white, adorable Persian cat that anyone could fall in love with. She was the only friend he had at home aside from the furniture…hell even the furniture sometimes acts as an enemy to him."

"And he killed her?" Seto repeated.

"Yes, as you must have heard today, he must have slaughtered her throat with a knife or something and thought it would be really funny to place it beside him on the bed so it would be the first thing he saw in the morning when he woke up." Téa said in a low voice, shaking her head.

Seto sat once again, this time in a seat beside her and breathed out in an exasperated way, feeling truly and for the first time, how very dumbly he had jumped to a wrong and fatal conclusion. "This is…horrible." He could only comment with that.

"Horrible…wow, nice, neat way of putting it, Seto." Téa sarcastically said, turning her head towards him. He looked at her, so she shook her head and asked, "Do you know that the reason Michael and I hooked up is Yami?"

"I guessed it would be something like that, but I have no idea how."

"Well, remember when Yami was following me around the other day and Michael almost beat him up to a bloody pulp?" Seto nodded. "Well, he had planned all that. His fool-proof plan was to get Michael to feel jealous if he saw him flirting with me."

Seto blinked and it all suddenly made sense to him. He snorted out a laugh and shook his head bitterly in wonder.

Téa then spoke again, "And remember the cafeteria incident? When you caught him locking the door?" Seto frowned and nodded again, "That was also a part of his plan because, I don't think you or anyone else noticed that there were two people still inside the cafeteria…" he stared at her questioningly so she giggled a little and resumed, "I was in there with Michael. Yami's plan was to get us both locked together alone somewhere."

"That is just…" Seto rolled his eyes, but couldn't help the grin that tugged on the corners of his lips at the completely creative idea Yami came up with to empty a school's cafeteria of all people in it.

Téa laughed a little and then sighed, and her smile turned bitter and she mumbled, "He's so loving and caring…he just…doesn't deserve all of that. And the worst thing about this is that…I don't know if you've seen today but he doesn't allow anyone, not even me, to show him love or any good feelings ever."

"But…why?" Seto wondered.

"He doesn't like girls."

"Oh he's gay?" Seto asked in realization. She nodded, so he added, "So? It's not like you wanna be his girlfriend, right?"

"No, I don't, but…you do not know how horrible his father is, Seto." She said in a whisper and he stared at her in silence, wondering if there is anymore atrocities and heartlessness being committed against Yami, and she blinked and raised her eyes after she had been keeping them fixed on her lap and explained, "He took him once to a tattooist once. And he got him a tattoo; the word 'WHORE' written in old English script, between his shoulder blades and on the sides of it, large, angel wings."

Seto could actually feel his breakfast trying to leave through his mouth and he closed his eyes when they darkened at what Téa was saying.

But obviously Téa was just not done yet. "At home, Yami isn't called by his name. Slut, freak, bitch, creep are some of his names at home. And on top of that at night, at the times when the fucking bastard realizes that Yami couldn't knock himself out that night, he'd make sure that while he's fucking him, he'd tell him he's stupid or that he is hideous or that he was now secondhand goods and that no one would ever even want to look at him…just one big nightmare." She paused a little then asked, "You think he'd take a girlfriend or a boyfriend after hearing such things at such a time? Hell, if I were in his place…"

"I'd bury myself alive," Seto resumed for her in a whisper, placing his head in his hands.

"Yes, you're getting it now."

Silence hung over them for a bit, before Seto asked, "How long have you been friends?"

"Well, Yugi and I were the closest friends ever, but then when…" she snorted and laughed bitterly and said, "Listen to this: 'a burglar broke into the Motou Mansion and killed him and his mom and injured Yami' as the story goes, and when Yugi died, I made sure to stick to Yami although he had been distant from me and his brother's friends. He was always the kid who sat in the corner speaking to imaginary friends while others played together. I couldn't bear the thought that he was now alone without his twin brother, so I stayed beside him."

Seto swallowed and was silent again for a bit then he looked at her and said, "I am glad that you were helping him so far."

She blinked and stared at her hands where a tear landed and she muttered, "He doesn't deserve this Seto…"

"I know, Téa…and now, you're not the only one who will be helping him."


	4. Chapter 4

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Four**

It was a few days after Seto had spoken to Téa in the Council's conference room, when the brunet walked into the school's building in the morning, staring at his feet in thoughtfulness. Ever since that day, all of his thoughts revolved around Yami. It was not that they didn't already revolve around him most of the time, but nowadays, it seemed to Seto that he was being slowly driven mad by guilt and desperation. Guilt at being so heartless as to jump to such a shallow and untrue conclusion about Yami and desperation because of how much each passing day seemed to reveal to him the extent of the damage being inflicted on Yami.

He couldn't believe how fucking blind he was. How come he, as well as everyone else around, not notice how much Yami's toughness and defiance was all just one big fraud? Were they really that naïve and gullible? Wasn't it obvious, with the way he stared off into space with those big, wide oceans of crimson when he thought no one saw him? Wasn't it obvious the look of complete misery in them during those times? Wasn't it too obvious the pain he was in every time he'd bump into someone by mistake in a corridor at one of those moments where he seemed to plunge into a deep, endless ocean of thoughts and a never-ending reality of sadness?

He sighed and looked up when he felt that he'd reached his locker and he opened it as he thought hard of ways to try and at least make it better in some way for Yami. He was, for the first time in his life, feeling helpless and he slammed the door of the locker closed with all his might to try and relieve his anger at himself and life's unfairness, in general.

However, just as he was about to glare at the girl beside him who squeaked at the loud noise, he heard shouting coming from the end of the corridor, carrying with it the voice of yet another one of those bullies who had nothing better to do but pass picking on others as a daily source of entertainment.

He walked towards the source of the noise and, just as he expected, saw the members of the swimming team bunched together with their leader right in the middle of the semi-circle they made with the wall and their bodies.

What he didn't expect, however, was to see Yami right in the middle of that circle with the dude who looked way taller than he was, not to mention healthier and _very_ angry!

Seto froze for a bit, seeing how Yami looked like a small child whose parents left him in the park and not even his favorite teddy could comfort him. He could see the unnatural shine of those tired and dark-rimmed crimson eyes and he could also see total submission to what the other boy had in store for him, as if he was thinking, "Do what you have to do and then leave me alone."

The only thing that got Seto out of his stupor was when the leader of the swimming team angrily and viciously placed his hands on Yami's chest and, using all his power and good health, pushed the smaller teenager back, while yelling, "You stupid little freak! What the hell do you think you're doing walking like a blind bat into me like that?" Yami had been thrown back into the wall after that push and a violent, involuntary gasp escaped through his lips when the breath was knocked out of him as he slid down against the wall to crumple on the ground.

Seto walked into the scene, glad to see that those who had gathered to watch, at seeing him, dispersed. To his amazement, before he could say one word, Yami had looked up at the huge boy before him and said in a calm voice and a tiny, little quirky smile, "I am sorry your girlfriend thinks you're a big, great loser now."

"You freak! I will…"

"I will be stopping this fight right now," Seto intercepted, walking in between the angry teenager and Yami's body on the floor. He stood a bit taller than the swimmer and his blue eyes flashed dangerously and so did his badge. "Be mature, Johnson, let it go; he didn't mean it."

"Did you even listen to what the punk just said?" the other boy half-yelled in frustration.

"Yes, I did. But this just proves that all this wasn't planned, because you weren't even standing with Erika right now; hell she doesn't show up except after 07:45, right?" Seto raised an eyebrow in askance.

The boy narrowed his eyes at him and looked as though he was struggling very hard not to beat Yami up, but then he backed away and straightened and said, "I won't give you troubles, Kaiba. But know this, freak," he said the last part speaking to Yami and Seto almost got a nosebleed because of how frustrated he was when Yami was called that word. "You got off this time only because Kaiba is here to save your ass. Next time, I swear I'll really do the world a favor and kill you."

"Thanks, you are very merciful," Yami replied with a weak snicker from behind Seto.

Johnson gave him the finger and walked off with the rest of the swimming team.

Seto turned to the huddled body behind him and saw Yami getting up. If Téa hadn't spoken to him and if she hadn't told him Seto would never have noticed the flash of total agony mingling with the distortion that already plunged Yami's eyes behind it. He would have never noticed the struggle in them which he had previously mistaken for that blank look Yami always had in his eyes after he pumped into someone in the corridors.

But this time, he noticed it and he frowned in concern and asked, "You alright?"

Yami stared up at him and frowned heavily and said, "Head Boy, go irk someone else!"

"I was just trying to help, you ungrateful midget!" Seto snapped, his temper flaring against his will.

"I never asked for your stupid help." Yami replied, turning his back onto him.

"Don't get so high and mighty, Yami. I was doing my job as Head Boy. I am not your knight in shining armor." Seto nastily countered while walking past Yami and then paused and tilted his head to the side slightly and threw one last nasty remark, his anger blinding all thoughts of how much he should help Yami instead of getting so impatient with him, "Don't think I did this as a way of trying to get friendly…I'd do it to a rat had it been in your situation. At least it would have been grateful."

And he walked away, not seeing the twin tears tracks that formed yellowish, tanned cheeks when Yami blinked at his words.

* * *

That very same day, they had a gym class. Mr. Anderson, as usual, was checking the uniforms at the beginning of the class and an idea occurred to Seto just after the man ticked beside his name in his file. He stepped forward towards the man and said with clam tones, "Can I have a word with you?"

Mr. Anderson blinked in surprise, but then he shrugged and said, "Okay, after we finish checking the…"

"No! It concerns someone here and I must speak to you." Seto insisted.

"Okay, okay," Mr. Anderson said and called out to the others, "You can do what you want today." Seto waited till he started walking away and followed him. When they reached the office, the man sat down on a chair and said, "So, what is it?"

"I want to speak to you about Yami." Seto said and was a bit disgusted to see the expression of distaste and displeasure on the teacher's wrinkling face.

"What of him?" he asked, extending his neck out a little to stare outside where he located Yami sitting alone in the bleachers in his sports shorts and the long sleeved shirt over it. "Wearing the wrong uniform again, little rascal!"

"Yes, exactly! The uniform is what I want to speak to you about!" Seto said, he too taking a seat opposite the teacher. He saw the expression of puzzlement in the latter's eyes and flooding his face so he explained, "Sir, you _have_ to stop striking off ten of his marks because of that."

"Why should I do that? He is not a special case, you know, I cannot make exceptions. The rules are very clear and he has to abide by them." Mr. Anderson grumbled out.

"Look…I also used to think like that, but sir, really. You must excuse him." Seto tried once again. He would go as far as telling the man what was going on, but for now he wanted to keep it secret for as long as possible.

"Look, kid. You're my favorite student of all the twenty three out there and you really deserve being my favorite student and I'd do anything for a favorite student of mine. But I am very sorry, I cannot listen to your request concerning Yami." Mr. Anderson got up to pace angrily around the room, and Seto watched him in silence. "Every single time, he is always in full sleeves. I told him to wear the correct half sleeved shirts three times a week for about…three years! Last year was my limit. I had to start striking off marks, because…"

"Can I ask you something?" Seto interrupted him. The man stared at him questioningly, so he resumed, "Have you ever looked at it that instead of him being intent of breaking your word, of wearing only half sleeves, he is just too desperate to keep his arms hidden?" he raised an eyebrow when he was done speaking and stared in a signifying way at the man.

Mr. Anderson paused and stared at him in puzzlement, "What do you mean?"

"Isn't it possible that he is hiding something under those full sleeves, something that hiding is more important to him than losing ten whole marks every class?" He knew he wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but he had to take a step forward; so far, Téa had just stuck to the plan of hiding things like Yami wanted, but that didn't lead anywhere. So he had to do something more!

"What do you know?" Mr. Anderson asked suspiciously, sitting down in a chair nearer to Seto than the one he had been sitting in.

Seto started telling him snippets of the story. Not the whole thing, just enough to have Mr. Anderson getting up by the end of the conversation to grab the file with their markings and grades in it and add ten marks to each class that passed of the current month to Yami's records.

* * *

Yami despised the feeling that he owed someone something. He hated that feeling of anxiety that made his stomach feel funnier than it always felt when he looked at someone who had done something for him. And that was why he despised that stuck-up snob called Seto Kaiba.

Alright, he may have said that he didn't need help the other day but to be honest, he didn't think he would have come out of that alive. Seto had, as sappy as that may sound, arrived right on time. And to add to that, at the end of that day, Seto had taken Mr. Anderson by the side and told him something that had the man stopping that irksome and very frustrating habit of cutting ten marks off each gym class because of the long sleeves.

And now, every time Yami stared at him, he'd get that funny and irritating feeling in his stomach. And truth to be told, he had enough funny feelings already to add a new one to them because of one Seto Kaiba…

And so he decided that as soon as he could, he'd try and do a favor to the snobbish brunet just to get rid of the feeling.

And the opportunity presented itself just three days after the little incident with the captain of the swimming team. He had been sitting in a biology class doodling in his notebook as usual while trying to catch something out of what was being said over the sound of an imaginary whirring in his head. Suddenly, he looked up when a cell phone rang shrilly, interrupting their teacher.

He looked at Seto who hastily took out his ringing phone and answered it, "What?!" Yami watched the angry and ticked off expression in the deep blue eyes, before the brunet sighed and got up, saying, "Why can't you people just stop messing around with the systems? I thought I told all of you not to try and change anything!" Yami kept watching as he stared at the teacher who nodded, giving him permission to leave the classroom. Yami followed him with his eyes as he sighed and said, "Okay, do _not_ mess things up more. Leave everything…" his voice faded out when the door closed again.

Yami shifted his eyes to the empty desk and saw that Seto had forgotten his notebook on the table in his haste to leave. An idea occurred to him to get rid of the feeling that he owed Seto something and he got up and walked towards the notebook.

"Yami, I don't think it is acceptable if you get up and just walk to some other place in the middle of class." He rolled his eyes when he heard the teacher's calm, patient voice.

He turned to her and gracefully sat down in Seto's place and smiled sweetly and replied, "Sorry. Next time, I'll try and run, alright?"

"What are you doing over there anyway?" she asked, her patience leaving her at his witty reply.

"I am doing a rare community service. None of your business where I sit, really, since I am attending the class, right?"

He could see steam coming out of her ears at how angry she was and at how much she was stopping herself from most probably walking to him and slapping him, then she turned around to walk behind her desk and she looked a little at her reference notes.

He too stared down at the notebook before him and he opened it to the last page. A quick skim through what was written told him exactly what the lesson was talking about so he took out a pencil and tore a page out of his own doodling notebook and looked up. When he did that he saw the teacher staring at him in surprise and he was too tired to give her one of his smirks and settled onto looking elsewhere.

A few moments later he heard her starting to speak and he followed her by writing down quickly points as to what the most important thing she said was on the piece of paper. The effort, although puny to his classmates, made every single bone in his body ache. He had a headache and he wanted to lie down somewhere and sleep, but he thought that the only way to get rid of that irritating feeling he had whenever he saw Seto, was to help out and write him notes when he wasn't there to do so for himself.

He was silent throughout the class, until the teacher asked, "Who could tell me the half-life of glucose?"

He looked up and stared around him and he inwardly laughed at the look of uncertainty on his classmates' faces. He watched in amusement as topper after topper of the class was asked and each guessed a weird number. One actually said 3000 years, so the teacher sighed and said, "No, that is not correct."

The comment had Yami's inward giggles breaking through his mouth and he kept laughing out while everyone's eyes turned to him. The teacher frowned in displeasure and asked, "Please, Yami, share the joke or get out of my class at this very moment."

He took a deep breath and rolled his eyes and muttered in a bored voice, "The joke is that the so-called toppers of the class cannot distinguish between what _can_ have a half life and what cannot."

A girl sitting right in front narrowed her gray eyes and made a face at him and said in disgust, "Oh, so _you_ would know?" she had spat out the you in such a disgusted way and Yami saw Téa's lips curling and saw her lips move to mouth, 'what a bitch' under her breath.

"Actually, I do." Yami nodded his head in amusement as he said that.

"Okay then," the teacher closed her textbook and crossed her arms, real interest and hope springing into her eyes and she resumed, "Please share your thoughts with us."

Yami rolled his eyes once more and snorted and said, even though speaking so much made him uneasy and made his head ache more, "Half life is the time taken for a radioactive substance to decompose to half of the quantity that exists of it. And what is the keyword in that simple statement that Dina," he nodded his head towards the girl who had mocked him a few moments ago, "Repeats whenever there is a physics class, as though she doesn't know anything other than it? It is the word 'radioactive'." He paused a little then giggled a bit more and added, "It simply means that glucose does _not_ have a half life. It isn't a radioactive substance or element to that matter so it cannot decompose."

There was total silence, before the sound of slow clapping resonated across the room and everyone's eyes turned to the teacher who was making the sound with a look of amazement in her eyes as she stared at Yami. "Yami, you just earned three bonus marks next Unit Test. Well done."

Yami rolled his eyes and said, wanting to maintain the same image after that shocking incident moments ago of him participating in class, "I said I was in the mood for community services. Those dunderheads need something to bring them down to earth that they know nothing of what is being taught."

He smirked when he heard the outraged chaos that followed his comment and when he saw the exasperation on the woman's face.

* * *

Seto had returned home only after school hours were over, at about…6:00 PM. He was exhausted; one of the technicians caused the whole company's computers' operating systems to crash and…it was just really messy. The company lost about three million dollars in the few hours Seto spent fixing everything up once again. That person who caused the whole issue was definitely, definitely fired!

He said hi to Mokuba and went into his study to see if anything else got screwed up in the ten minutes he spent driving from work to the Mansion. When he saw that everything was going smoothly (it was always this way, he had to fire someone to get others to work properly) he started of some way to get the notes for the whole day that he missed in school.

Everything was going against him today.

He heard the doorbell ringing and Mokuba shrill, "I'll get it," so he sat back down and continued browsing through his contacts to try and call Téa and ask her for a quick idea of what was taught today in school.'

A few moments later, Mokuba barged into his office with his cheeks flushed and a madly happy expression in his gray eyes and he said, "Seto, a friend of yours is here."

He frowned in puzzlement and got up, asking his little brother, "Who?"

"He's a really shy dude…and has weird hair and eyes. His name's Yami."

Seto's eyebrows rose in surprise and he then frowned and walked out of the study to see Yami standing beside the floor to ceiling window in the living room and staring out at the dull and darkening sky, unaware that he had arrived. He was wearing a pair of baggy black pants with a thick leather belt holding it up on his skinny hips, along with a full-sleeved gray top that didn't really show how skinny Yami was, and he had a pair of combat boots on and his hair was not spiked up as usual but left loose and to surround Yami's face with smooth locks that looked like some sort of a halo.

"Hi," he said suspiciously, drawing Yami's attention to him.

He turned around to stare at him and Seto saw the crimson eyes flickering to Mokuba, before Yami forced himself to focus them on him and replied, "Hi."

"What are you doing here?" he couldn't help how the question came out, but just blurted it out just like that. Yami blinked and frowned in hurt at that, and Seto mentally slapped himself for not being careful and he quickly said, "Sorry about that, but…you just surprised me…"

"It's alright, I came unannounced, that is just rude." Yami calmly replied and Seto saw him lifting the shoulder bag he was carrying and opening it and taking out what oddly looked like his biology notebook and a few papers. "You forgot your notebook in class today, so I brought it over along with the notes as to what was done today in school."

Seto stared at him in amazement, numbly receiving the papers and the notebook from Yami. No way! Did he really do that? Why!

"I am sorry if the notes are not good enough, but no one seemed to be taking them down for you, and you weren't there, so I thought even if I jot down points of what was said, it would help." Yami explained and Seto still blinked at him.

"You wrote down notes…?" he managed to get only that out.

"Yes," Yami said, shifting slightly.

"Umm…I don't know what to say, really," he said, looking down for the first time at the notes in his hands and his mouth opened at how neat Yami's handwriting looked.

"It's alright, I still remember your help back with Johnson." Yami said, avoiding his eyes.

Seto oh-ed under his breath in realization and looked down again at the notes he held in his hands and then looked up again at Yami while saying, "Thanks a lot, I just came back from work and I was wondering who to call to get the notes."

Yami nodded and said in a low voice, "It was no trouble, I don't write for myself or anything," he said the last part with a tired giggle and Seto blinked, not seeing the funny part in what he said, so he cleared his throat and resumed, "If you want, next time work calls for your presence, I can take down the notes for you."

"Oh, thanks a lot, Yami." Seto said, feeling really amazed at the completely noble act that was expected of anyone, anyone at all except Yami.

"Well then, I have to…go." Yami said, raising his hand and pointing behind him uncertainly, and Seto noticed that his eyes flickered off once again to Mokuba who stood behind Seto, reaching only a little above his knee with how short he was compared to his elder brother. Seto saw the longing and deep bitterness in that look and he wondered what features in Mokuba exactly reminded Yami of his deceased twin brother.

"Have dinner with us!" Mokuba suddenly quirked up from behind Seto.

Yami stood frozen for a bit, then laughed a little and said, "I would love to, but I really can't."

"But…But…why!" Mokuba whined.

Seto turned to him and glared slightly, "Mokuba, that is enough…"

"Please, it's alright…" Yami interrupted him and then turned to Mokuba and said with a smile, "My dad wouldn't agree. He doesn't even know I am here now, so I must go back soon. Maybe some other time, alright?"

Seto felt his heart as if getting gripped by a fist of ice and as if it sank to the area between his feet. He froze totally at that and he realized that if Yami got late because he was here giving him his notes he would most probably end up bruised and in pain before the night ended, not that he didn't look completely worn-out now, but Seto knew that whatever discomfort Yami now felt would treble in the next few hours.

"I'll take you home!" he blurted out, taking out his keys from his pockets and already walking towards the door.

"No, it's fine, I'll walk." Yami said, shaking his head.

"No! I'll drive you."

"Be reasonable, you just came back from work and you have got a lot to finish p here as well! It is not the first time I walk home!" Yami argued, his face hardening and he glared with his dull eyes at him. "I will walk home."

"You'll be late," Seto really hated how he seemed to never think of what he was saying nowadays.

"So what!" Yami defensively asked, frowning in suspicion.

His lips curled in helplessness and displeasure and he sighed and ran a hand through his brown hair and resignedly mumbled, "Okay, Yami, as you wish."

Yami stared at him a bit more, before turning around and leaving. Seto followed him to the door and leaned against its frame to watch as Yami walked away towards the huge metal gates.

He didn't know how the hell he was going to function right today evening and for several days to come, because already, he was feeling guilt gnawing at him. Guilt that wasn't only because of how completely _sweet_ that thing Yami did today was, but was also because now Yami's going get hurt more if he is late. And that was all because of him. And on top of that all, Yami was repaying him for something that he, Seto, had done and after doing, he had literally said that Yami was lesser than a rat.

And as he watched him walk away and thought of that, Yami turned his head without taking his hands out of his pants' pockets and stared at him with an unreadable expression in his crimson eyes. Seto blinked and looked back into the wide crimson orbs, as if wanting to say sorry for what was going on.

To his surprise, Yami gave him a tiny, bitter smile and blinked, looking worn and very tired in Seto's eyes, before turning again to look ahead of him.

* * *

A/N: many of you have asked if I will post other stories again… to be honest, I am not so sure about it.

Anyway, is there a particular story you would like to see reposted? Let me know.

Hathor…


	5. Chapter 5

**Leave Out All The Rest **

**Chapter Five**

Seto was sitting behind his desk, with his hands placed on the wood spread out as he stared at the pieces of paper stapled together securely and marked at the top indicating which subject each paper contained. The house was somewhat quiet, with Mokuba raiding the upstairs rooms with his noise, leaving the downstairs ones silent and quiet just as Seto had tiredly requested him.

It was 08:15 PM and ever since Yami had given him that silent look before leaving the Manor grounds, Seto had been sitting in his office with the things Yami had brought over splayed out in front of him for his eyes to get fixed on in that silent, contemplating, wondering way.

After a while of nearly driving himself mad with wonder, he decided to just finish up the work he had and then ask Téa about what happened today, rather than just sit down without getting anything done and wasting Yami's effort like that.

Why did Yami do that? Did Yami just randomly feel like helping others out? Or was he that proud that he couldn't bear the thought that Seto helped him out like he did last week? What could possibly have caused Yami to risk his father's wrath and leave the house when he wasn't supposed to just to give him those stupid notes? Hell, why did he even bother?

His mind was going in circles; no matter how far it went, it just went back to question one: why did Yami even bother to exhaust himself enough to do that? Why, why, why…

When the clock ticked 12:30AM, his head was reeling with those thoughts and he felt so lightheaded. He got into bed and the moment his head hit the pillow, he was fast asleep, and last thing he remembered before he entered the dark haze of sleep was Yami's small, sad smile and his wide crimson eyes, staring at him with an indecipherable expression.

* * *

When Seto walked in through the school gates the next day, still feeling lightheaded with his thoughts and, now, with lack of peaceful sleep, the first person he met was Téa. She looked flushed for some reason, but Seto knew, by the cold look in her blue eyes that it wasn't a very pleasant reason. She looked furious but contained.

"Good morning," he mumbled, as she fell into pace with him while he walked towards the school building.

"Same to you." She replied. Seto gave her a sideways glance, but waited for her to speak first. Which she did after a few moments, "Seto, did you take what I told you and went to Yami and started blackmailing him to do stuff for you?"

Seto stopped in his tracks at that. She stopped as well and turned to stare at him, a promise in her eyes that if his answer was yes then he wouldn't like what she will do.

"_No_!" Seto protested, his eyebrows coming closer in an indignant frown. She raised an eyebrow and stared at him, so he repeated, "No…no, no, no! How low do you think I am to use something like that against another person, regardless who they are?" So yeah, he _was_ offended.

Téa frowned in doubt and muttered, "Do you know he took down notes for you yesterday in class?"

"Yes, he came over to the Mansion to give them to me," Seto said, a hurt look in his blue eyes.

Téa stood still for a moment, then shifted her weight to the other foot and tutted, "Shit, he's not supposed to go out…"

Seto guiltily put his eyes down and mumbled while starting to walk towards the building once again, "Yeah, he looked uneasy yesterday."

She pouted and followed him inside, "I'll see what happened today. He didn't pick up the phone last night."

Seto felt so uneasy and suffocated at that; did something happen to Yami because he was out giving him his notes? Did his father discover that he went out without permission? What happened?

To make things worse, first bell for the day went off and Yami still didn't show up. Seto felt worry gnawing at his insides because Yami was in school about twenty minutes before that bell. He sat fidgeting in the homeroom, stealing glances towards the door and then to Téa, who was doing exactly the same, with a horrified, extremely-anxious expression on her lovely features. Michael was trying to find out what worried her like that, but she didn't tell him anything, just held his hand and Seto glimpsed that she squeezed it slightly, as if to reassure herself.

He, however, did not have the luxury of having someone to offer comfort like Michael was doing for Téa. So he settled onto ordering a complete, extremely-thorough and ridiculously-strict check for the bags and sentencing the confiscated items to life imprisonment in the Student Council's office. He knew how colorful the names he was called were after he was done, but he was much too occupied by thinking of Yami who did not show up in school even after the lunch-hour to care about those names.

Throughout the whole day, however, he made sure to carefully take down the things they did in class twice; once for himself and once more on separate sheets for Yami. When the bell rang signaling the end of the school day, he was placing the papers inside a file, when Téa walked up to his desk and hissed, "Something is wrong. Something went very, very wrong last night."

Seto swallowed and ran a hand through his hair and mumbled, "Obviously, you're right." He got up and safely put the file inside the bag and asked, "I want to give him these notes. Are you going to his place today or…?" he trailed off.

She sighed, "He told me not to do that anymore. I haven't done the whole jump-in-through-his-room's-window thing for over a year now. I see him only in school." Seto frowned and opened his mouth to ask for Yami's address, but she interrupted him and the idea of going to give Yami the file personally, "You think if I cannot go to his place anymore, he will feel happy if you go?"

He huffed and asked, "Fine, at least give me his number, I'll see if he can give us a solution then." She went silent and stared at him, and she gave him a little smirk. "_What_!" he asked, suddenly feeling defensive.

"You want Yami's number?" she asked with a little laugh.

He suddenly felt his face growing hot; that must have sounded suggestive. "Yes…now don't get ideas, Téa."

"Why not?" she asked, taking her cell phone out, and carrying on, "You guys would look hot on a date to the new restaurant by the pier."

Seto kept quiet since he didn't trust himself to talk at that moment with how much he felt his face was red.

She finally decided to shut up with her comments and gave him the number. She put away her cell phone and sighed, "I will keep trying to call him. I tried three times during the day, but he isn't picking up."

"Do you think he's okay?" Seto asked quietly as they paused in front of the school gates.

She paused a little. "No, I don't think so."

* * *

It was almost night time, and with every passing moment the open balcony no longer brought in as much light as it did the moment before it.

Yami's eyes were fixed on the darkening sky outside, as he lay in bed on his side, looking towards the doors of the balcony. He was lying curled up under the covers with his knees pulled up to his chest and with one arm hugging himself around the middle and the other arm tucked under the pillow on which his head was resting. His eyes were unblinking, as though they were just open and staring at the darkness creeping up on the entire world, but not really seeing any of it, or taking notice of the dimming room so he could get up and switch the lights on in his room.

But he wasn't planning on getting up or moving at all anytime soon. Even if he had been planning to, he couldn't, so that sort of limited his options anyway.

However, before he had taken up this still position, he had grabbed his favorite item in his large bedroom; his small, faithful pocketknife.

Every few minutes when thinking became a very painful thing to do and brought a sting to his eyes, he would look away from the window to bring the arm around his waist closer to his eyes and slide the other one from underneath the pillow with the knife clutched in it desperately and he would bring it closer to his skin and he would run it across a fresh part of his skin and watch with morbid amusement as the skin would break, look pink and ooze some weird, transparent fluid, before the pink and transparent look would retreat to give way to the dark, angry red that would flood the wound like an angry river would. And then, that river of red would over flow from the wound and pour out of it to slide sluggishly across his tanned skin and drip lazily down to the beige sheets or to land on his gray sweatshirt.

And now, he once again found that thinking hurt him badly…really badly. So, he tried to run to a pain that was easier to understand and he brought out the knife and placed its blade on a clear spot which he barely found amongst the mess that was his arm. He gently applied pressure. His skin refused to give and he kept his eyes fixed in fascination that never seemed to die although it was the same sight every time he did this. He applied more pressure, but his skin held its ground stubbornly. He eventually tired of that particular sight and he slid the knife down.

The angle of the blade, and the pressure he was already applying, caused the skin to break. Once again, he watched in fascination the change of colors that was taking place inside the cut. He kept the blade embedded in between the lips of the wound and he observed the contrast the sight made, with the warm red color and the cold, metallic one.

The pain was so comforting in such an odd, twisted way that made him slightly sick to his stomach at himself.

Yet, he was in so much more pain than he had originally planned to be in when the silence was interrupted when his cell phone suddenly started ringing. He flinched violently at the unexpected sound and then froze completely when the blade was driven much, much deeper than intended in the wound. He turned his face to bury it in the pillow to stifle the loud moan of pain that broke through his mouth when his body protested at being jolted in that way and when a dull, cold ache shot through his entire arm. It was not the first time this happened that the phone rang; actually, it was well over the eighth time this afternoon and the eleventh since 10:00 AM. Five times, it was Téa calling and the remaining six times, it was a weird, unknown number. And each time the phone rang, he'd get scared like this time. But each time before this one, he didn't have the knife planted in his arm.

Finally, he decided to eventually give up and answer, and by the way tell whoever the irritating prick was to piss off so he could continue lying there in peace or if it was Téa, listen to her talking, since that seemed to always calm him down. He took a deep breath to brace himself for the pain that would soon attack and he let go of the knife to stretch it towards the nightstand to grab the phone. He was panting heavily by the time he clutched the phone with his fingers. He waited for a second then looked at the screen, only to see that anonymous number on it. He frowned and answered, "Hello?"

"Yami?"

He frowned and blinked at the voice which sounded familiar to him, yet the identity of its owner hovered teasingly on the edge of his mind, "Who is this?" he asked, cradling the phone between his ear and his shoulder and reaching for his profusely bleeding arm to try and staunch the gushing of blood out of the cut.

He had been expecting anyone, anyone at all, to say their name to answer his question. But he still couldn't help the shock he felt inside from expressing itself on his features when the person answered, "It's Seto Kaiba." He stayed silent for a few seconds, making Seto say, "Yami, are you…"

"What do you want?" he cut in rudely.

"You didn't come to school today."

Yami scowled heavily at that, "So?"

"Why?"

"None of your business, Head-Boy."

He heard Seto sigh on the other end and to his irritation, he felt a pang of guilt at his rudeness. "You're right; it's none of my business. I just called to tell you that I have taken down today's notes for you."

He raised an eyebrow, "Why? It's not like I pay attention at all in class anyway. It doesn't matter if…"

"But I still felt that I must do it. We're nearing the exams and I'd like to think these notes may help you out." It was Seto's turn to interrupt him. He sounded determined and did not accept Yami's objections to what he said in any way. "Now, I would like to know if it is okay for me to come over and give them to you."

Yami's eyes widened in horror and without thinking, he shot up in bed, crying, "No!" the adrenaline from the horror he felt at Seto's suggestion quickly wore off and he was left in so much agony, he hardly kept himself from crying out with the intensity of it, and settled onto moaning low from behind his teeth, "Shit."

There was a pause on the other end and Yami prayed through his pain for Seto to just ignore what he just heard, but no such luck. "Are you okay?" Seto asked carefully and Yami cursed in his head.

"Umm…Y…Yeah," he lied, feeling horribly even more miserable about lying to Seto like that. Okay, yes, he didn't give a rat's ass what others felt about being lied to by him, but hey, Seto was the one person in this world other than Téa who gave a shit about him to actually do what the brunet just said he did. What an awfully ungrateful way to show his appreciation.

"You sure? You seem to be…" Seto insisted, pausing for a bit, before resuming, stressing on every letter, making Yami extremely uncomfortable and alarmed, "in pain. Are you sick? Is that why you missed school today?"

Yami swallowed, "Y…Yeah. Sick. That's it."

"What is wrong? Did you go to a doctor?"

Yami took a deep breath in silence, feeling more and more suffocated by the questions that were so, so well-framed that they made him feel as though Seto knew more than he was letting on. Though the idea of going to a doctor most definitely made him laugh out loud in bitterness; last time his father cared enough to take him to a doctor or get him medical attention was on the day he came back from work to find the corpses of his wife and Yugi, and find him almost dying of blood loss. Something trivial such as throwing up nonstop and coughing up blood for an entire day because of the good pounding he received yesterday evening, didn't really strike his father as important enough to take him to the doctor. Besides, who would want to get questioned on how he acquired the injuries that caused this disturbance in his system? If Yami was his father (he cringed at the thought) he wouldn't want to be questioned about _that_.

"No, Seto, I haven't. I'll be fine tomorrow, I'll come to school tomorrow." He mumbled in a miserable little voice, wanting this conversation to end, because, for some weird reason, he felt pressure building behind his eyes and his chest tightening horribly. "I'll get the leave note tomorrow as well, I promise."

There was pin drop silence on the other end once again, then Seto said, "I have not gone through the trouble of asking Téa for your cell's number, or calling you at all, to that matter, just to make sure you get the stupid leave note, Yami. I wanted to give you your notes and make sure you're okay. If you are sick, you should go to a doctor, and I want to make sure that that takes place as well. So don't insult me by saying such things and making it seem like I called for a cheap reason like making sure you get a stupid leave note, alright?"

Yami swallowed back the lump that formed in his throat and choked him while Seto spoke these words; so indeed, Seto did give a shit to just call and see if he's dead or still alive or whatever in hell it was called to live in this godforsaken place. It made him feel warm slightly, but the warmth sent an aching pain through his heart forced the tears, which initially just pricked his eyes, out and down his cheeks. "Okay, I'm just…err…" he swallowed again when his voice started wavering, then resumed, "Why are you calling?"

"I told you. I wanted to give you those notes and check on you."

Some part of Yami wished he had switched on the record-call option so he could have solid proof that Domino's ice-box, Seto Kaiba, was actually saying that to some irritating, bratty drug-junkie. He must be wanting something else. There must be some ulterior motive. There must be!

He was going to open his mouth to say something, when suddenly, very loud, noisy bangs were made on his door and his father's voice came, loud and booming as ever, "HEY BITCH, OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR."

Yami closed his eyes for a few moments and spoke embarrassedly through the phone, wishing that he was somewhere else at that very moment and doing something else, "Listen Seto, thank you a lot for the notes and all, but I will take them from you tomorrow, alright? Thank you a lot, but I must go."

"Is everything al…"

"Yes, everything's f…" he was interrupting when his father's voice cut his short.

"Did you hear me, cunt! Fucking open the door."

Yami cringed and curled tighter around himself, as if trying to protect himself from a not-so-unknown enemy trying to assault him and without even thinking, his terror at the fact that Seto _must_ have heard that blinding him, he lashed out, not noticing how much this outburst will cost him and not noticing that the speaker of the phone wasn't covered, "QUIT YOUR BITCHING! ALREADY HORNY OR WHAT? SHUT THE FUCK UP FOR LIKE FIVE MINUTES…"

He put his attention onto the phone now and realized with chagrin what he just did when he heard Seto saying in a slow voice, "Yami, what is going on?"

"_Nothing_! Now I must go. Thanks a lot for the concern, Seto. Goodnight," and he lowered the phone, ignoring the hurried 'wait' he heard Seto say, and he hung up.

His heart was fluttering wildly in his chest. _What have you done, what have you done?_ His mind screamed at him in terror and he whimpered in his throat at the horrifying silence coming from the other side of the door. He placed a hand to his mouth, terror rendering him frozen on the spot, feeling sicker than he ever was since last night. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. He should not have said that. He really should not have said that to his father.

Finally, it was only after five minutes that he untangled himself from his paralyzing terror and he got up with difficulty to walk with dread to the door. His hand hovered over the handle for several seconds, as his survival instinct screamed at him to run…be somewhere else. Anywhere, anywhere at all safer than what was waiting for him cunningly, ruthlessly on the other side of this big, heavy wooden door. Anywhere away from the pain, misery…hell anticipating his presence on the other side of this solid block of wood that was a fake illusion of protection, since it never did cosset him in any way from the monster behind it.

Finally, his logic won over that wild, basic instinct and he realized that he had nowhere to go to, and had no any other option but to open that door and get whatever life has dished out for him. As usual.

He turned the knob and opened the door, pulling another fake façade of calmness and indifference on his features. Just another lie to try and protect whatever tattered remains of his pride, which he no longer believed existed at all.

His father was standing there with his muscular arms crossed and his hips resting on the railing that the rest of the house and the downstairs section were beneath. Tall, slender, well-toned body, with a wild-looking, seemingly-disheveled mane of black hair and a deathly-handsome face, with the most intense features of it being the cold, ruthless crimson eyes, which were the same shade as Yami's and were enunciated by the very sharp edges of his face, the long, straight nose and thin-lipped mouth, its harshness increased by the hard shape of his jaw. He had a slight, elegant goatee on his chin and with the cold, merciless expression in those crimson eyes he passed onto his son, Yami was easily convinced why people associated persons of such elegance and with goatees to Satan and antagonism as a whole. Or at least, he was convinced that this particular person, his father, the respectable businessman, Mr. Motou was the perfect impersonation of Satan in a human form.

Yami prayed he got out of this one alive.

He walked out of the room and stood in front of the tall body, so much larger than his, and he took a deep breath and looked up.

A second or two later, he found himself flying down to the ground underneath his father's feet when one heavy, ruthless palm slapped him with so much force that he lost his balance and his injured, slight body was thrown down in such a way. He blinked, still stunned by the blow and a small part of him realized that there was the slight, coppery taste of blood in his mouth. His lungs suddenly remembered how to contract again after they froze just like he did when he was struck and they started expelling the air in them too suddenly for him to cope up, so he started coughing violently.

He was going to raise his hand to his mouth to cover it up when he saw the blood splutters on the linoleum floor with black and gray designs on it, when he gasped in pain and forgot all about his mouth and raised his hand to his father's hand that fisted cruelly in his hair and pulled him up by it, and tilted it upwards so he could stare at the cruel, cold crimson orbs. "Your eyes…remain…on the ground…whore," each part was reinforced by a violent tug on his hair that sent jolts of pain throughout his whole body.

Against his will, he started crying all over again, fear making him forget about that suddenly-funny thing called pride and making him start defending himself in the only way he could, "Dad, I…"

He was once again interrupted when he was slapped once more on the same side of his face. He whimpered and blinked in pain, realizing that he was being dragged by his hair towards the stairs only when they were right at the top of them. His head ached so much and he was hyperventilating now, unable to breathe properly through the fear and tears.

"You embarrassed me in front of my guests, freak. Bitching? You haven't come near to seeing how bitchy I could become Yami," Samuel said dangerously, pulling him up once more to stare into his tear-streaked, reddened and bruising face with a dispassionate expression. Yami whimpered and his hand tried holding on tightly to his father's, as if like that, he would be able to untangle the inhumanly strong hold on his hair. "You're gonna pay for what just happened, Yami. I promise you that."

And without a second's hesitation, he swung Yami away from him, forward towards the stairs.

Yami's eyes widened in alarm, and the scream that was going to break through his lips died in his throat before it was even vocalized, as his arms shot out, trying to hold onto anything, anything to halt the fall that would most definitely kill him…trying to catch a part of his father's body, to implore him to feel sympathetic for his child…

But he found nothing to even hinder the fall. He fell back due to the momentum of his father's toss and the emptiness behind him that made his heart feel as though it was rising in his throat. The only thing he managed to bring out of his mouth was a tiny, imperceptible gasp of surprise, terror, desperation…he didn't know.

He didn't even know what happened next.

The next thing he was aware of was that he was once again being dragged somewhere by his hair. He felt sick with pain in somewhere in his chest whenever he breathed and he coughed violently, and hence that made the pain impossibly worse, and he successfully managed to make himself sick. He turned his head down to the ground and retched violently, coughing and splattering and moaning in pain when Samuel's hold on his hair tightened and when he was forced to follow on his hands and knees.

He was surprised that he wasn't dead, or with a broken backbone.

Yet, he wasn't so sure if he was lucky because he was suddenly tossed forward again and he fell sprawled in the middle of what he vaguely recognized as the living room. He stayed curled up on himself there, waiting for his breathing to become less painful, something which did not happen at all, until he was grabbed once again, this time by the arm, and he heard the sweatshirt he was wearing getting ripped and felt it being torn away from his body. He sobbed when the cold air hit his skin, but the desperate, pained sound turned into a gasp when he was roughly manhandled to get turned to the other side, so that whoever was sitting on the armchairs and the couches of the room would get a clear view of the hideous tattoo he had on his back and shoulder blades.

"There you go, gentlemen. This evening's entertainment…"

Yami closed his eyes and let his mind wander elsewhere, far away…safe…

Pride? He needed someone to get him a dictionary so he would get to know what that word meant…

* * *

Next day, when Seto went to school, he was in the same mood like he was yesterday evening…full-blown panicked mode. When he was sure that Yami really did hang up, he had jumped up from his seat behind his desk in the office in KaibaCorp's skyscraper and he called Téa to hysterically screech at her what he heard over the phone. She had screeched back at him just as much, but he didn't think she was nearly as panicked as he was.

Well, he had wanted to do something like call the army forces and go over to Yami's place to bring the whole thing on Yami's dad's head…but Téa said that they absolutely will not do anything of that sort.

Which was why he thought that she was not even close to alarmed, never mind as alarmed as he was.

Téa was once again waiting for him by the gates. He could see her while he parked his car in the parking, leaning on the brick and metal fence with her arms crossed in front of her chest. He got out and took his schoolbag with him and walked directly up to her. "Good morning," he said.

"Same to you," she said and Seto got an odd sense of déjà vu. She stood in the same position, not even hinting that she was about to start moving towards the school building. He looked at her and she seemed to sense his question so she said, "I am waiting for Yami to get here. If he doesn't, I am not going to attend classes and I'll go see him."

_So she wasn't waiting for me then_, Seto thought and he nodded, taking a place beside her and assumed the same position like hers. "Well, I'll wait with you then."

She stared up at him searchingly for a bit, before smirking to herself and looking ahead at the direction where Yami was supposed to show up, and she giggled, "So did you consider the idea?"

"Which idea?"

"A date…with Yami?"

Immediately he pushed off the wall and glared heatedly at her, "_No_!" _Liar_, a voice at the back of his head giggled. Okay, so maybe the thought crossed his mind yesterday once…or twice…or a little more than that. But he was not about to share that with Téa! She definitely needn't know that. "Stop thinking like that."

"Like what?" she asked innocently and he made a face at her and didn't answer her. He leaned once again on the wall and watched the passing students who shot him dirty looks, all remembering their beloved items which were confiscated by him yesterday. He ignored them and stared ahead, his fear and anxiety growing more and more with each moment passing without Yami showing up. He still couldn't believe the rudeness the boy was addressed with by his father. And he still shuddered over the indication of the words Yami screamed out at his dad.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair and was going to ask Téa if she had called Yami once more last night after he told her what happened, when she suddenly straightened and stood on tiptoes for a moment, craning her neck and narrowing her eyes slightly in some direction in front of her, before her eyes went back to their normal shape and she said in a worried way, "Yami's here."

He followed her gaze and he stared at the elegant Chrysler from which Yami was stepping out of, slinging his school bag on one shoulder. Seto stared at the car and a small part of his mind screamed, _I should get one like that_. The car screamed: filthy rich.

He was aware that he was not the only boy on the school campus gawking like a moron at the car. Every single male on the school grounds stopped, and ignored everything around him, including those speaking to some of the hottest girls in the entire school, and just stared with an open mouth at the extravagant car from which the school's supposedly biggest psycho stepped out of it.

Seto blinked and focused his attention away from how sexy the car was and how he _must_ buy one immediately, and watched as Yami stiffly bent down a little to speak through the open window to someone inside. Téa was already walking towards him, but she was doing it really slowly, as if to draw less attention to herself. Seto started walking towards the car as well, just as Yami straightened, failed to hide the look of raw agony from his face, and pushed away from the car, not even caring to give it a second glance.

Téa reached Yami before he did. She stopped in front of him and said something that didn't reach Seto's ears where he had stopped, unsure of whether going to speak to Yami right now was such a great idea. From where he stood, Seto felt his stomach lurching at the sight of the other boy. Something was wrong; something was very, very wrong about his entire appearance, something that made him look more fragile, more vulnerable today.

And then, Yami raised his eyes from where he had them cast down at his feet as Téa spoke to him urgently while he kept silent. He raised them and they were looking directly at Seto's. And in them, Seto read defeat, brokenness, humiliation, suffocation, surrender and a small, helpless, terrified little boy with nowhere to run and with no safe arms to run into when the whole world gets too crazy and starts to condemn him for minor things he had no control over while turning a blind eye and deaf ear and numb existence to all the things that were just so completely wrong.

Téa's words obviously were not answered, because Yami placed his hand on hers and he said something, which made her stop talking altogether and step back with a resigned, defeated look. He turned his eyes to the ground once more and walked towards the gates, where he paused for a moment beside Seto, his eyes still fixed on the ground, before he started walking on once more.

Seto turned around to call him back, when Téa's voice came from behind him, "No." He turned to her so she shook her head and repeated, "No. He's going to see Bakura now. And trust me…he…" she paused, and pain surfaced on her face and she completed, "He needs whatever he is going to buy from him."

For the rest of the day, Seto made sure to obey Téa's request to leave Yami be for the moment, and he merely settled onto watching from a distance. Yami was extra-quiet; usually, whenever a teacher remarked about his lack of participation in class, he would make sure to snap a reply back at whoever the poor person was. But today, even as the Math teacher passed a comment about him that had the whole class (except for Téa and Seto, of course) to either laugh or smile in amusement, he just kept his head down and kept writing in his notebook furiously, ignoring the whole world around him.

Seto was torn between his stoicism and indifference, and another weird, insistent urge to just rush over to Yami and take him in his arms to take him away from all of this ignorant, stupid, mindless crap going on around him. He had a headache by the end of the day from trying to fight both the want to not shun everyone who dared mess with Yami (like he glared at the Math teacher, making him clear his throat embarrassedly and drop the whole issue) and fight the worried, concerned glances he kept shooting towards Yami all day long.

Finally, the final class in the whole day arrived and Seto got more and more uneasy; Yami looked quieter and more exhausted than he ever looked not only throughout the whole day, but also in the whole time he'd known him.

Mr. Anderson thankfully skipped Yami's name during the uniform check and did not comment when he saw Yami sitting down on the ground, with his back pressed into the wall of the gym, and his knees drawn up to his chest, a dazed, unfocused look in his crimson eyes.

He was pissed, however, when a few of their classmates pointed at Yami and started laughing, commenting on how high he was at the moment that he would not be able to tell if somebody pounds him to next week and back again…like they were planning to do.

Seto walked in front of Yami and he raised an eyebrow and glared at all of them and said in a low voice, "I promise you, that if anything happens to him, even if you haven't done anything, I will personally make sure that the whole group of you is not to be let inside any school in Japan. Am I clear?"

They stared at him sourly and turned away, muttering something about fun-spoiler and irritating and crazy people flock together, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. He just glared at them for a bit more, so they started focusing their attention elsewhere and he dropped the glare and turned to stare at Yami sympathetically. He found a pair of emotionless, expressionless crimson eyes staring up at him, so he blinked and asked, "You okay?"

Yami's eyes were filled with an ice-cold expression that actually sent a slight chill down Seto's spine and he said in a venomous voice, "Now, Seto, don't look at me like that…I might start thinking that you are pitying me for some reason." He paused and got up with perfectly-coordinated moves and grace that had Seto staring in awe at him for a while, and he added, "I don't deal well with that sort of expression. Especially when I am on the opposite side of it."

Seto blinked and stayed silent for a while, in which Yami just stared up at him in defiance. Something was really wrong with Yami's face. He looked a bit closer and his eyes widened very slightly in realization when he saw the very faint difference between the colors of particular areas on Yami's face. It was a very faint difference and only one who was searching for something different in particular would notice it. His stomach lurched and he was feeling sick; fake tan? Was Yami's face so bruised that he needed fake tan to cover it up?

"What the _hell_ was going on yesterday?" he asked, keeping his revulsion at this atrocity intact. That's right, Yami said it too; sympathy was not the correct technique to use in this situation. Something needed to be done, but simply being sympathetic was not it.

"Stay out of it," Yami snapped, fire in his eyes.

"No thanks, I won't stay out of it. I'd like an answer to my question too." Seto insisted, crossing his arms.

"Go fuck yourself, Kaiba," Yami hissed at him and started walking away.

However, Seto grabbed him by the upper arm, and without breaking a sweat, swung him back into place against the wall, drawing a sharp gasp of pain and surprise from his mouth. He made sure to make his glare as cold and piercing as possible as he pinned Yami to the wall by his arm and towered above him and venomously hissed, "What was that?"

Yami was still gasping for breath for a few moments after that, but he stared up at Seto and repeated rudely, "Go fuck yourself, you irritating, self-centered prick. What gives you the right to ask such a thing?"

"What gives me the right is that I was on the phone with you when someone just called you…" he couldn't get the words out, even if he was mad as hell right now. "_That_!"

Yami went silent and flushed dark red. Seto did not let him go and did not say anything either. Eventually, Yami's eyes turned to his and he said in resignation, "Okay, Kaiba, what exactly do you want?"

"I want to know what the hell is going on." Seto said firmly.

Yami closed his eyes briefly, then grabbed Seto's sports t-shirt and, somehow managing to break free from Seto's hold, dragged him to the empty locker-rooms that had the showers and all attached to it. Seto frowned and raised an eyebrow, but waited to see what the hell Yami was doing.

When they were inside and when Yami made sure that the whole place was empty save for them, he locked the door behind them. He turned to Seto and said, "Don't move, trust me, this will be good." And he came closer and Seto just watched him carefully, wondering what the fuck's going on, especially since Yami's tiny hands went to the hem of his track pants.

"Whoa! What the _hell_ are you doing?" he half-yelled out, grabbing Yami's wrists and pulling them away.

Yami blinked calmly at him and smiled all of a sudden, a soft, warm smile that took him by surprise, and he came closer, wrists still trapped by Seto's grasp and he stood on tiptoes and craned his neck upwards. Seto blinked as he realized Yami's intentions and his brain froze totally and forgot everything about what he wanted to ask and why they were here in the first place. He could only just stare at Yami's sexy, twinkling, half-lidded crimson eyes and drag his gaze down to the very appealing wine-colored lips that were approaching his.

He didn't even know what came over him; he let go of Yami's wrists and he let it happen, Yami's lips attaching gently to his, the other teenager's tongue boldly and curiously discovering his mouth and tasting it playfully, while his now-free hands wandered to finish its incomplete task of undoing the drawstrings of the Nike track pants.

Instead, his hands rose up and he placed them on Yami's neck and he titled his head to the side slightly so he could get a better angle and he started to respond rather eagerly to Yami's approach. Everything about the incident yesterday evening was forgotten and instead, he was more preoccupied with the way Yami's fingers were touching his skin from beneath his t-shirt and how the other small hand was wrapped so deliciously and firmly around his suddenly-raging arousal inside his pants. He moaned when Yami's mouth found a very sensitive spot on his neck and sucked on it gently, while both his hands were now at the hem of his pants, pulling them down along with his underwear.

He was lost…lost in some far away, blissful heaven where there was only sweet heat, delightful sensations, unearthly touches…and Yami. Nothing else was needed.

Within a few more moments, Yami had dropped down to his knees in front of him and had his small, extremely warm lips wrapped around his throbbing flesh and he was working on it with surprising talent and skill that had Seto groaning once more in pleasure and clenching his eyes shut when the sensations became too delightful for him to bear anymore.

Within a minute or two, he had shot his load in Yami's mouth and was panting heavily as the boy rose up after gently placing a small kiss on his hip bone and readjusting his clothes back to how they were. He leaned heavily on one of the marble counters in the room, waiting for the foreign weakness in his knees to pass while Yami placed his right hand on his cheek and kissed him deeply on the lips once more, making him taste Yami as well as something else which a vague part of his mind told him was his own essence.

He was responding to the kiss passionately when he suddenly realized what just happened. He flinched and he pulled away, exclaiming, "What the fuck did you just do, Yami?"

Yami smiled sweetly at him and said, "I just gave you a blowjob."

He felt himself inventing a new shade of red at that and he couldn't gather his thoughts long enough to retaliate. What had he done? How the hell did he let himself get so carried away? Even after what Téa told him? What had he done?

And to make things worse, Yami smiled a bit more and titled his head sweetly to the side and said, "Now, please, just forget what you heard yesterday, alright? And if you need any more convincing, just tell me. You're cute and I won't have trouble doing a repeat of what happened just now."

Seto felt his stomach heaving at what he heard. He raised one hand to his mouth to stop himself from throwing up and just when he succeeded in pushing back the nausea he felt, Yami said while leaving the room, "If you feel like taking it a step further I don't mind that either."

When the door closed behind Yami, the only sound in the locker room was the sound of Seto emptying his stomach of all of its contents.

* * *

A/N: ^_^ hello there, dearies… sorry for the half-hour delay :D I was out.

I'd like to say a quick thank you to people like Dragonlady and Yami Neferbre and Princess Lolita *hugs* and every other person who has read this work so far.

As you might have noticed I put up Yours to Hold as well… I wasn't so sure which fics to put up next so I started with the complete and somewhat okay-written ones… Please do tell me if you'd like to see something in particular reposted.

I love you all 3

Hathor…


	6. Chapter 6

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Six**

The moment he got out of the locker room, and walked far away from it to stand outside the gym, Yami leaned against the wall, panting heavily in pain. He doubled over and placed his hands on his knees, trying very hard not to pass out, which was extremely difficult, since his entire chest seemed to be ablaze with pain and his head was aching as though someone thought it was funny to repeatedly pound him on it (a part of the truth, actually).

He felt sick. And not because of what he just ingested just moments ago. He was more like, sick with pain and the fact that he was trying so hard not to pass out while he did such an intimate thing to the one person he could only dream of having in that way and the one person who he knew was hopelessly beyond his reach and beyond what…_something_ like him could ever have.

He knew now that it became really, really hopeless. A day or so ago, he might have brightened up his day a little by telling himself, 'oh Seto Kaiba cares about me,' but now, after what just happened and what he did to the poor guy, he didn't think Seto would even stare at him ever again with any other expression except complete contempt.

It should be okay. It was alright, wasn't it? One extra person staring at him in condescension and as though he was some kind of a stray piece of dirt lying beside a dumpster; that was not a problem, and it shouldn't be a problem. One more person to know that he was really nothing but an unpaid prostitute; that's cool with him, right?

Only it wasn't. It hurt. It stung so badly, he couldn't bear it without having tears slide down his cheeks like they were now. "It's okay, it's okay," he kept whispering, lying to himself, over and over again, with his head leaned on his forearm, which he had placed against the wall. It was not okay, dammit. He hated that now, even the one person he thought cared about him other than Téa, knew he was such a slut.

Eventually, his knees gave way and, with his hand still attempting to hold him up by clinging to the wall, he slid down to sit on the ground in an undignified little heap of pain, tears, shivers and self-pity and self-disgust. He sat there, trying to borrow further into the wall, trying to merge with it and become a non-living thing that people passed by everyday and gave no attention to, because it was much more bearable this way. If he was dead…if he had no life in him, no breath reverberating so painfully in his chest, then it wouldn't hurt this much; this constant horror, constant rejection and derision and constant suffering which he could not find a reason for, and so, came to accept it as an unwanted bonus to his everyday life.

He was in so much pain…trying to stifle these sobs while his ribcage was half shattered this way. But the worst pain, which was truly killing him inside, was the way he failed royally at repressing those sobs. His pride (he had to snort when the word came to his mind) was depleting more and more than it had already depleted over all those years, with every single choke that overwhelmed him.

He tried to stop; what if someone walked into the corridor and saw him like this? Everything would turn out for the worse, because one of two things was destined to happen. One of those brainless jocks who thought they ruled the school would pass by and have fun beating the shit out of him, something that inevitably lead to his death, for sure. Or, one of the teachers would pass and unwanted questions would be asked. But, he failed at stopping the strong trembles running through his body and the helpless tears running down his face and the sobs choking him and putting him in a lot more agony than he was in already.

And so, what he feared exactly took place. Johnson, the captain of the swimming team who he had knocked into accidentally the other day, walked in at that moment and saw him. Yami wasn't even aware of his presence until he spoke, sarcasm and mockery in his voice, "What you doing down on the floor, punk? Finally learnt your position?"

Yami focused on regulating his breathing and stopping his tears, but failed anyway and he made sure to keep his face buried in his arm which was still on the wall, as he tried to hide his wet, tearful face from view.

But it seemed Johnson was obstinate about getting an answer from him, and Yami flinched when the stupid jock grabbed him by the arm and tried to tug him away while adding, "Looks like you need a real lesson to make sure that you really do know your place, freak!"

Yami, with an extremely huge amount of persistence and self-control, spat back, "No one is a freak around here except you, Johnson. So get the fuck outta my face before I throw up because of _your_ freakiness." At least if he died, he would die with his pride still on him in front of at least one person.

He felt it; Johnson's hand tightened painfully around his arm, indicating that he was about to haul him up and turn him around to give him the beating of his life…well, a beating similar to the beating of his life, since he most probably saw worse than what was about to happen now, but suddenly, another voice was heard in the corridor and Yami mentally groaned.

"Johnson, let go of him. What are you doing? As a sportsperson, I thought you had more honor than to pick on someone smaller than you are, who is not even attempting to harm you in any way," Yami knew the voice and lecturing tone – it had been used to address him in every single P.E. class he had attended for the past three years, he would recognize it anywhere – and he realized with increasing exasperation that Mr. Anderson was the teacher he had been anticipating that they would pass by at that moment. Great, so now not only did one of the jocks pass, but also a teacher…he was doubly-blessed, wasn't he?

He was thankful, though, that Johnson let go of his arm and said, "I was just having a little chat with him. He is not important enough for me to waste time on badgering him," the comment was not insulting, coming from Johnson's mouth. It was true after all, wasn't it? The kid was right. And Yami was alright with that. Everything's cool, everything's alright with Johnson thinking of him as a worthless pile of garbage. He didn't care.

Johnson was gone, thankfully, and Yami tried to pull himself up to his feet and finally managed to do it. However, he kept leaning heavily on the wall, while his hand stealthily rose up to wipe away his tears and rid his face from any evidence of them, as the teacher asked, "Yami, what's wrong?"

With extreme trouble, Yami turned around and shielded his pain with a blank mask and he automatically answered, "Nothing is wrong."

The man stared at him with wrinkling brown eyes and said, "You don't look so good…"

"I am fine," he said, in a snappy, rude tone, trying to make the man go away.

But it was obvious that it was no good, because he just frowned a little and said, "You do not look so good. I think I should take you to the nurse."

"NO!" Yami half-yelled. The man stared at him with a blink, so he bit his lip and muttered, "I said I am fine. Now go away."

Mr. Anderson stood staring down at him with that same, worried –and was that sympathy? - expression and kept doing so until Yami couldn't take it anymore, and was about to walk away, even though he was horrified at how rude that would be, but then Mr. Anderson spoke again and made him freeze on the spot, "Yami…if you are ill and…if it is bothering you so much like it is now…it's okay to tell someone and ask for their help."

Yami prevented a whimper from escaping him, and muttered instead, "I don't understand what you're talking about."

"I am talking about the reason you have your arms hidden all the time like that."

Once again, he froze and turned to face the teacher once again, after he had turned around to leave and he frowned in confusion and asked, "How…err…What do you…What do you mean?"

"I mean that there must be a reason for you to always wear full-sleeves like that. And it must be a very good one, because even when you know you'll lose ten marks each time in P.E. you still won't wear the uniform. And I know for sure that you don't wanna lose those ten marks. I can see it in your eyes each time I struck them off," Mr. Anderson said in a convinced voice. Yami watched him, his eyelashes fluttering slightly and his gaze wavering; he was right. He was torn up every single time he saw another part of any future he may have before him get struck off with each P.E. class. Each one of those ten marks meant that his hopes of getting reasonable grades to work, as a waiter even…anything, but get away from the life, the hell, he was living now, were being struck off with them. "So what exactly is that reason you have to lose those ten marks every class to protect?"

Yami bit his lip again and refused to cry as he repeated, "I…I don't know…what you are talking about." Did Téa betray his secret to Mr. Anderson? Did she tell him? What was going on?

He was sick and dizzy with pain, as well as the beginnings of his body's protests against how it went too long without his shot of drugs. But no pain in the world could be compared to the horrific ache in his chest at the thought of Téa betraying him…well, Téa would not betray him; she would never do it to hurt him, get him help, yes, but betray him? No, he knew her too well to understand she would never, ever hurt him. He knew that she was somehow trying to make it up to his deceased twin, that she could not protect him, so she was working on protecting his brother instead. Maybe she did tell Mr. Anderson to help him or whatever she wanted to achieve by doing it, but that didn't make it hurt less. It was also the thought of more people knowing how debased, how dirty and used he really was; the idea itself killed him even more.

But then again, he wasn't really alive, right now, was he? Was this how life was supposed to be like? He never really knew, so it wasn't such a big deal, whether he's alive or not. But to have more people staring at him like the pointless piece of shit he really was…that was unfair.

"If something is bothering you, Yami, you should tell you guardians…" Mr. Anderson was saying in a careful voice.

Yami laughed. He just started to giggle tiredly, leaning on the wall once again. He was aware of the man's bewildered eyes on him, but he didn't care. Oh man, that sounded so damn funny. His eyes watered and his hand rose up to his lips to try and somehow stifle the amused laughter, but it was just so hilarious. Tell his guardian. Sure, why not? Yesterday night was such a suitable time to speak to his father about his stress and problems. After his father's guests left, he was so totally in the correct condition to speak to him. He wondered why he did not do it.

"Yeah, sure…I'll go home today and speak to Dad about that thing that was stressing me out," he said through his helpless giggles, shaking his head in bitter amusement and he pushed off the wall to walk past Mr. Anderson. He paused a little beside him and mumbled, "Th…Thank you…" he could feel the puzzlement…amazement, radiating off the man; the fact that he was thanking someone for something must have really fazed him. He swallowed and added, "Your concern is appreciated."

Mr. Anderson did not say anything; he was probably amazed that someone like Yami knew how to say big words like appreciated and such.

Yami was still laughing when he reached his house. He had wanted to see Téa, but she was surrounded by her friends at going-home time and then later on, she was speaking to Michael, so in both cases, he couldn't afford walking up to her to start a conversation. And besides, he really needed a shot of his heroin, since he barely had time to take one today morning, after he had to take a bath with scalding hot water for over two hours, trying to get rid of the effects of the massacre that was done to his body last night, with as little pain as possible. So he wanted to get to his room in his father's Mansion as soon as he could.

"What the fuck are you laughing about?" he was brought out of his thoughts when his father greeted him with that. Samuel was standing in the hallway with a letter opener in one hand and a few envelopes in the other and he was checking the mail in boredom, his hair ruffled all around his head in a slightly-wet mess. It was obvious that he just came out of the shower, probably he just woke up.

Yami hid his pain and he smiled wider and muttered, "I'm laughing at the time when you were stoned and as high as the fucking roof and you took that fall on your ass in the living room." _Do it, kill me,_ he thought, hoped, prayed as he tried to provoke his father as much as he could. He couldn't bear this anymore.

His answer did as was intended. His father's handsome features contorted into an expression of complete wrath – his father was such a big baby, Yami always knew that that trick worked like magic – and, with the letter opener still in his hand, he threw his stronger body at Yami's and his free hand bunched into a fist and he swung it hard at Yami's face.

He was on the floor within moments, with the side of his face smarting painfully. He could taste blood seeping into his mouth from the corner of his torn lips, pouring on his tongue from the inside of his cheek, as well as feel it trickling down the side of his face from where that fucking ring his father was so fond of wearing, had cut the skin. He swallowed in pain, "Feeling manly today, huh?" he whispered, praying fervently in his head that he would really, really drive Samuel beyond the coming back point. Kill two birds with one stone, or whatever the expression was; he'd die and be free from this hell, as well as send the bastard to jail.

Before his hand could continue its journey to wipe away at the trickle of blood on his cheek, he found pain paralyzing his entire body, when Samuel violently, unemotionally kicked him hard in the ribs. He caught the letter opener by its tip and raised his hand. Yami stared up hazily at him, and he blinked several times, trying to get rid of the horrible image of two copies of his father that his delirious mind and unfocused eyes brought about, and he saw the two versions making a face at him in disgust while his father's hand swung the knife down forcefully.

Yami saw it coming towards him as though in slow motion. Round and round it traveled towards him until it finally made impact. He was so weak, he really couldn't do much but moan out in pain when it cleanly cut through the material of his uniform and got embedded in the right side of his upper chest, right beneath his collarbone.

"Bitch," his father spat out, kicked him once more in the ribs, which made a loud, sickening crunching sound resonate in the hallway, before leaving him lying on his back, with his hand trying to weakly get rid of the letter opener implanted in his body.

It wasn't until a little less than an hour passed since he got home that he finally, with weak, quivering fingers that shook so horribly, managed to draw the knife-like object out of his body and it fell with a clatter to the ceramic floor. He lay there panting heavily, feeling sicker than ever, not only with pain, but with every single breath he took, because he could feel something hard moving inside his chest every time he inhaled or exhaled, and with every movement of that hard thing, he felt a nauseating pain that made his head spin in his skull.

He really needed his shot right now.

He forced himself to get up and, with swaying moves, he got to the base of the staircase where he had fallen yesterday. The thought made his vision darken, so he pushed it away and started ascending the flight of stairs, slowly, trying not to move unnecessarily. Somewhere in the middle of them, he tripped and fell. He couldn't find the energy in himself to get up again, so he crawled the rest of the way up, before he collapsed on his stomach, curled up in a panting, shivering mess at the top of the stairs as he tried to catch his breath. When he got that done, and after he figured out he could not get up at all, he crawled on his hands and knees towards his room.

He raised his hand, trying to reach the knob, but he cried out when his chest area protested harshly and he brought his hand down and took a few deep breaths. He then lifted himself up a little on his knees and he tried again. His hand twisted the knob when it reached it but then his eyes, which had closed in anguish just seconds ago, flew open when he found that the door wouldn't open.

He stared up in terror and he kept twisting the knob over and over again, trying to gain access to his room and access to the only thing that was capable of helping him numb the torturous pain his body was enduring at the moment. But all his attempts failed and realization dawned on him, along with silent horror, that he was once again being denied his heroin.

He sank down lower to the ground, with his hand still on the knob. He turned it again, but the door did not open. He shook his head slowly, disbelieving. No! He had to open the door. He had to open the door by any means possible.

But no matter how many times he tried twisting the knob, it didn't work. The door didn't budge.

It wasn't until about two more hours passed with him attached to the door like that, and his hand trying to open the door, that he realized that he was not going to get into his room anytime soon. His hand sank down, slowly, despairingly. He swallowed, trying not to start sobbing like he really wanted to, but…it was just impossible. It was not that crying would make him feel better; he was already crying, although he was still unaware of it. It wouldn't help him, no; it would actually cause him more pain than he was in actually. But what else could he do?

And so, he sat there, with his knees drawn as close to his chest as his aches would allow, and his face was buried in the corner between the door and the slight protrusion in the wall, as his shoulders shook with the silent sobs that broke through his mouth. Tears were smudging his face, but those had been falling way before he started sobbing so shamelessly. He wanted his drug, now. He really needed it, and he needed it so badly. So, so badly. He was sick with pain; he was being slowly driven mad with it.

He only came around from his delirious pleas to divine powers he had no idea why he still believed in, when Samuel's sarcastic drawl was heard from somewhere above him, "What is my little bitch doing, stuck to the door like that?"

Yami pushed away from the door, and titled his head back to stare at his father pathetically and he pleaded, "Open the door…I…I need…I need the…" a wave of pain hit him and he stopped to gasp noisily.

"You didn't even say please." Samuel remarked in gruesome, disgusting amusement.

Yami's eyes, burning with tears of pain and humiliation, pleaded, just as was demanded, expected of him, "Please! Please open the door…"

Samuel bent down to one knee and he raised his hand to place it on Yami's bloodied, tear-streaked face, making him flinch violently in fear and revulsion. He stared at him with a mock compassionate expression, and he said with narrowed crimson eyes, "Nah. It was too little and too late."

And with easy, casual moves, he hooked his arm under Yami's knees and around his back and lifted him up. Yami tried to thrash out of Samuel's grasp; he knew what was coming. He knew his father was taking him away from what would make the pain stop. He needed the pain to stop. Just stop. He sobbed and pushed away with all of his little might at that moment, "Hush now, Yami. Be a good little boy." Samuel said, tightening his hold on him warningly while kicking the door of his own room open.

Yami went lax in his arms, and, in a very inconsistent action, he averted his face so that he buried it in his father's strong chest, as though this way he would avoid what was coming, although what was coming was done by none other than the person he was hiding his face in their chest.

With almost gentle moves, Samuel placed him down on the bed and made him lie down. Yami stared up at him with bleary, watery crimson eyes and he whimpered, "Dad…please…I really n…need it…please." He was begging. He didn't give a flying fuck about it. He was ready to sell his soul to the devil at the moment just to have the horrible ache, the burning and stinging and pounding in different parts of his body, to just stop.

Samuel's finger rose and he placed it on Yami's mouth, and although the action was so damn confusingly gentle, his smile made all the confusion disappear because of how expectedly evil and cruel it was, "Don't worry…you'll get what you want, Yami."

He was about to sigh out in relief, but then he froze in horror when all hopes he had developed came crashing down on him when his father's fingers started undoing the buttons on his school jacket and caressing the exposed skin on his body with unspeakable, immoral actions that made shivers of disgust shake his body from head to toe. "No…no, please don't…" not again. Not so soon, no, no, no. He couldn't go through this again.

"Be quiet, Yami."

He pushed against the hands running over his body, he tried to get rid of them and the feeling of being dirty wherever they touched, but it was useless. His pain, the crave for his drug and the complete terror he was suffering from made him hilariously weak when compared to his father's strong, muscular body. But he couldn't allow himself to give up just like that. His hands, although shooed away and pinned to his sides many times, kept rising up to try and push away.

He kept that up until Samuel got mad and impatient and struck him on the face hard enough to make his head spin and send him into comforting oblivion.

* * *

After he was done throwing up everything he ate that still remained inside him, Seto had sat on the floor of the lockers, beside one of the benches in the middle, so he would try and compose himself and bring himself back from the shock, the terror and revulsion of what just happened. Sure, he actually did consider Téa's suggestion of him and Yami dating, but to have Yami give him a blowjob like that? And he had allowed it. What the hell was wrong with him? For all he knew, he was no better than anyone who hurt Yami and he was most definitely not any better than his father.

He forced himself to get up, because he really did not feel like having any of his classmates seeing him like this. He had to go speak to Yami. He had to find him, apologize, then beat some sense into him that he shouldn't go around offering blowjobs to anyone just like that.

It sounded like a foolproof plan to him at that moment, so he walked out of the locker room and he walked with as much determination as he could muster in his current state, towards the exit of the gym, because he couldn't locate the familiar mass of wild hair anywhere amongst the people inside the gym, but he paused when he heard Mr. Anderson's voice calling him, "Seto, wait." He turned around to see the man walking towards him, a grave expression in his eyes. He stared questioningly, so the man stopped a small distance away from him and said in a low voice, "I saw Yami outside a few moments ago." Seto blinked, in acknowledgement, masking his guilt and worry as much as possible, while the teacher added, "What _exactly_ is wrong with that kid?"

"I told you. He's really stressed out and he takes it out on himself." Seto lied; back then he did not really tell the man what was 'really' wrong, but settled onto telling him a part of the truth. But he felt his heart sinking that perhaps, the teacher did not swallow that lie?

"I am not a fool, kid." His fears were confirmed. Mr. Anderson crossed his arms in front of his chest and resumed, "This is way more than just self-harm. This looks more like a…like a…" he paused and shook his head in suspicion and carried on, "Like a case of child abuse. That's how it looks like."

Seto swallowed and he stuttered, "Err…maybe…erm…"

"Just tell me. There must be something I can do." The man interrupted his awkward stammering.

Seto sighed and his hand rose to brush his hair back and away from his face and he said, "Look…I really, really wish I could give you the answers, but…I did not figure this out by myself and I wasn't supposed to tell you anything at all. I was just…trying to help Yami."

"So you're not denying what I just said?"

_Damn, he's smart,_ Seto thought and bit his lip and looked down at his feet, refusing to answer. They needed help. Téa must have made some promise to Yami not to try to do that, but Seto was not obliged to sit back, knowing that everyday, Yami went through hell and just…not do anything about it. Sorry, but he couldn't do that. If Mr. Anderson could help, so why can't he tell him what was going on?

Mr. Anderson uncrossed his arms and his eyebrows rose in realization at Seto's silence and hesitance. "I see," he muttered, shock clear in his eyes.

Seto sighed again and said, "Look, I need to go now. I wish I can tell you more now, but…it is not possible."

"That is alright. The picture is quite clear and sensible now." He sourly answered, his lips curling into a displeased expression.

Seto turned around and left the gym, just as the bell rang. Seto cursed under his breath and turned to the direction opposite to the one he was going on, when he realized he had duties near the bus area of the school.

Within an hour, the school was empty. He knew that there was no way Yami would be still around, so he walked towards the parking area, meaning to get inside his car and drive to the Mansion to change and go to work. When he reached the car, though, he found Téa leaning on it with her cell phone stuck to her ear and a worried expression in her blue eyes.

_Shit_, Seto thought. He really, really didn't think Téa would approve of what just happened between him and Yami back in the locker room. He tried to keep a placid face on and he walked to the car and stood beside her till she lowered the phone.

He stared questioningly at her so she huffed and said, "Yami left and I don't know if he's okay or not. He wanted to speak to me, I saw him standing in the corner but Michael was there and he doesn't like speaking to me in front of others. I am trying to call him for the past thirty minutes but he won't answer."

Don't tell her, don't tell her, don't tell her. Seto repeated over and over again in his head.

"He told me today morning that his dad had friends over last night and that he got mad at him." Téa fervently said, once again trying to call Yami. She put the phone on her ear and she spoke quickly, anxiously, "I really think he shouldn't be at home in his condition. I am not sure what that is exactly either, but I know that it is not too go…"

"Yami gave me a blowjob in the locker room."

It was too much. Listening to all of that, all of Téa's worries and her concerns, which confirmed his own fears and apprehension, and made his guilt increase tenfold, it was just too much. He needed some sort of penalty for what he did…what he allowed to happen.

Téa froze, her mouth hung open and she stared at him in confusion and misunderstanding. Then, when his words seemed to sink in, her hand went lax around the phone and it fell down to the gravel with a slight thud. Seto swallowed when he saw the expression of utter rage in the blue eyes the same shade as his and he knew that he was in for it from Téa this time.

Yet, even if he had been anticipating a violent reaction, he never expected what came next.

Téa raised her hand and with force that made him reel in shock, she slapped him. Just like that.

And as his lower jaw dropped open in shock and pain and his hand rose to his tingling cheek, she started reacting verbally.

"You son of a bitch, I _should_ have known." It came out as a low whisper that, to his amazement, sent a slight chill through his body. He stared at her, unable to say anything amidst the shock of what just happened, as well as the guilt he was already feeling, as she added, "I should have known you'd go blackmail him with what I told you. Are you that heartless, Seto? After all I told you…after what you know he is going through, you…you forced him to do…that?!"

At that, Seto spoke. "I did not force Yami to do anything."

"Yeah, sure. You just gave him no choice, huh? You must have said, 'oh Yami it is your choice; either blow me or have your secret exposed'. Typical Seto Kaiba. You think you can have everyone as your p…" He frowned in hurt and raised his hand to place it on her mouth. She scowled heavily and tore her head away from his hand and concluded, "You are the most disgusting and despicable animal I have ever had the displeasure of laying eyes on."

Seto swallowed again and he said, "I…I know that." Yes, he was agreeing to her opinion of him. "But I…I did not force Yami to do that." She raised an eyebrow, so he tried to explain, "I was trying to speak to him about what I heard over the phone yesterday and he took me inside the room and…he started acting all…and then I don't know what happened, but…" he trailed off, not finding the correct words without blushing even more than he was right now and without his throat closing up. Her eyes, although still cold as ice, softened very, very slightly and her disgust and wrath was intermingled with doubt and uncertainty. He took the chance to say in a low voice, "I would never do that to Yami. It is completely my fault that I allowed it to happen, but I wouldn't force myself on someone else."

She kept staring at him for a bit, until he shifted in discomfort, before she stepped back and her face smoothed out a little and she said, "This is bad…do you know that? He really didn't need that, on top of what must have happened yesterday."

Was she trying to make him die on the spot with guilt? "Is there no way that we can get to him now?" he asked, trying to swallow down the huge knot of shame blocking his throat in that awfully suffocating way.

She bit her lip and shook her head and his heart sank. He prayed Yami was okay.

* * *

Téa was being driven half-mad with worry.

It was the very next day after she had slapped Seto Kaiba and lived to remember the moment. Yami was not in school and whenever she thought of the why to that, she would feel a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Seto looked as sick with worry as she was, and she did not know if it was genuine or not. To be honest, she couldn't tell if she should believe what he told her yesterday about him not forcing himself on Yami or not. From where she looked at things, any of the boys in Domino High, if they got to know what Seto did, they would immediately resort to blackmailing Yami. She had thought that…Seto was different. She thought that he was really concerned, that he cares about Yami and that is why he was so insistent. She did not know if she was wrong in her assumption or not.

The idea that she may have been wrong made her sick.

Lunch hour arrived and Yami was not in school yet. She exchanged looks with Seto, who was standing with his arms crossed in front of his chest and his back leaned against the wall of the place beside the door of the cafeteria, and she easily read anxiety in the blue orbs. Her lips curled in discontent and she diverted her eyes from him to her friend, Jenna, who was talking about the latest movie that came out last week.

She zoned out sometime in the middle, but then she started when she heard a weak voice from behind her that was barely heard above the sound of Jenna's insufferable chatter, but, to her, was louder and more effectual than a thousand war drums beating right beside her ear.

"Téa, can I have a word with you?"

She whipped around immediately, and she saw Yami standing a few feet away. He was as pale as a sheet and his entire face except his eyes was completely expressionless. His eyes…oh lord; something was horribly, horribly wrong. She gasped softly and, with an iron will, prevented herself from running over to wrap her arms around him.

Jenna, to her irritation, narrowed her gray eyes and, while flicking a stray bang of her silky black hair away from her eyes, she said with disgust, "Oh my…go away freak. Téa doesn't associate with your t…"

Téa, seeing the completely wounded and upset expression in Yami's dazed crimson eyes, turned her eyes to Jenna and viciously spat, "Shut the hell up, it's none of your business who I associate with. Who appointed you as my fucking lawyer, anyway?"

And she got up from the table, and took Yami's hand and started walking away, towards the side exit of the cafeteria that led out of the building. She did not look back and she did not stop until they were both in that shaded, secluded part beside the building, behind some huge boxes that contained some supplies and furniture. She pulled Yami to make him stand beside the wall and she placed her hand on his shoulder and opened her mouth to speak, but the loud gasp of pain he let out at her touch made her retract her hand back towards herself as though she was stung by a serpent.

"Oh my God…Yami…" she whispered, seeing the shivers shaking his small body with their intensity and the slight sheen of sweat shining on his brow. "What…What happened? What's going on?"

"Did you tell them?" Yami asked, his eyes closed and an expression of complete anguish dominating his features.

She frowned in confusion, "Tell who? What?"

"Did you tell Kaiba…and Mr. Anderson?" he repeated, his voice hoarse, his breath wheezy.

Téa blinked and she bit her lip. "Yami, I…"

"Just tell me," he interrupted her, opening his eyes. She blinked and felt herself starting to cry when she saw the tears running down his ashen face. "I am not mad at you. I… will not be mad at you…just tell me if you did. I want to know…"

She bit her lip so hard; she could feel the skin break and could taste blood. "I…told Seto." He looked down, with his body leaning heavily on the wall. She blinked to clear her vision of the tears and saw the tremors running through his entire body, and she added, "Yami, I am really sorry but I…I really wanted to help you and Seto saw us speaking together the other day and he started asking questions…I…I tried to send him away, but…he kept insisting, I am so…"

"'S okay, Téa…" he interrupted her, and she could hear it in his voice. He tried to sound normal, but he sounded so hurt, so betrayed, so miserable, she felt like scratching her skin off because of how vile she felt.

He pushed off from the wall and he tried to leave, but she placed her hand on his shoulder again, completely forgetting about his previous reaction. She blanched when he cried out again and his hand flew to the area beneath his collarbone and his knees gave way in whatever pain he feeling currently.

Her arms shot out so she would support him and break his fall and she sank down to the ground with him. "Yami, what is going on? What did he do this time?"

Yami looked up at her, his eyes having a tortured, agonized expression in them and he gasped out, "N…Nothing, Téa."

"How can it be nothing? You can…You can barely breathe," she shrieked in terror, holding onto him a bit tighter, but again, she let go immediately when he let out a choked sound at that. She didn't receive any answer except for him closing his eyes, and gasping for breath. She bit her lip so hard and she trailed her eyes over him, before realization hit her, "Did you run out of your drugs?" He shook his head, so she asked in desperation, "Then what is wrong! Yami, you have to tell me, this is not funny."

He forced his eyes open and he whimpered out, "He locked the door to my room. I have my drugs and my money there…"

"How long was it since you had your last dose?" she demanded urgently, praying vainly that it wasn't too long.

Yami clutched at her and shut his eyes tightly and he whimpered, "Day…Day before yesterday's e…evening."

Her mouth dropped open in shock, sympathy and pain. She wrapped her arms tighter around him and she whispered from where she had her face buried in his silky, multicolored hair, "Why did you come to school, Yami, why?"

He sobbed and answered her, "I…I don't want to stay at home with him anymore…he…he keeps…" and he trailed off, shuddering noticeably in her hold.

She raised her head and stared around her, trying to figure out how to help Yami.

Her answer came in the form of Seto's concerned voice, crying out from somewhere nearby, "Téa, are you there?"

* * *

Seto saw Téa take Yami's hand and walk outside. And right there, he searched the cafeteria for the school's President and when he found him – something that took a while longer than he would have liked since the chap seemed to be busy doing more…_personal_ things – he told him to fill up for him because he had an important matter to deal with.

He stepped out through the door Téa and Yami went out through and his eyes searched the grounds, but he didn't find them. He went right, hoping that his assumption as to where both had gone was correct. He walked swiftly towards the side of the building and on his way, he sent a glare at the two boys who were fighting nearby, effectively making them break away and flee away from him.

Finally, he stood near the fence that was beside the building and he carefully called out, "Téa, are you there?"

At first, he did not receive an answer so he frowned and was about to leave, before he heard her answer, "Seto, I'm here. Could you come over please?"

He followed the source of the voice, somewhere behind some huge boxes where sometimes the school's drug dealers carried out their business and his eyes scanned the situation at hand. When he took in the sight before him, he stopped in his tracks and his eyes widened in shock and worry.

Téa and Yami were on the ground, and Téa had her arms wrapped around Yami, who had his head leaned on Téa's shoulder in very clear weakness and pain. Téa's eyes were staring up at him and Seto could see the tearstained skin of her face and only then he realized that Yami's body was shaking so much. He didn't if it was because he was crying…or…he just didn't know.

"What is going on? Is he okay?" he asked, immediately going down on his knees beside them.

"No, no he's not okay," she choked out, running her hand through Yami's hair, and Seto was not so sure if she wanted to comfort him by doing that, or wanted to comfort herself. "He didn't get his shot for over a day now."

Seto knew what that meant. It meant that Yami was currently going through hell right now.

"And I don't know what else is wrong with him. Everything, every touch, seems to be hurting him and I don't know what to do…" she trailed off when a sob choked her.

Seto was going to say something, but then Yami beat him to it and he pushed away at Téa and whimpered, "Stop it…don't…tell…" and then he doubled over with pain, and he panted heavily, as Téa held him tighter.

Seto frowned and his mind immediately gave him the correct solution to what was going on right now. In a second, he had drawn nearer to both of them and, with a look into Téa's eyes in which he asked for her trust, he placed one of his arms beneath Yami's knees and the other one he wrapped it around his shoulder.

With ultimate ease, he rose up with his surprisingly light load and he stared down at Yami's startled, hazy crimson eyes and he said, "Instead of the sex you offered to give me whenever I wanted…I want you to trust me."

Yami blinked and stared at him for a moment longer, in which Seto determinedly stared back at him, before he blinked once more and, while his hand rose to clutch as tightly as he could at Seto's school jacket, he gave a slight, weak nod and he closed his eyes and went limp in Seto's arms.

* * *

A/N: thanks for reading… 3 especially those dropping a word or two that they did.

Hathor…


	7. Chapter 7

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Seven**

"So who are they for?"

"None of your business, Bakura."

"C'mon, Kaiba; I may be a junkie and one hell of a thief, but I am not stupid. You don't look the type." Seto kept his silence up, while handing Bakura, the school's most well known drug dealer, a respectable handful of bills. Bakura took them and stared at him for a bit, but Seto did not say anything. "They're for Yami, right?" Seto's eyes rose up so he would stare into Bakura's brown eyes, but again, Seto refused to speak.

Bakura sighed in mock drama and stepped close to Seto. They had been standing near the hedge behind the school building, after Seto found Bakura and told him he needed to speak to him urgently. Seto had gone to find him after leaving Téa and Yami in the backseat of his Toyota Camry and after promising to come back really soon. It was a priority to get Yami some of that poison he couldn't function without currently, and the one person Seto could think of who had the damned drug all the time, was Bakura.

But now, he really regretted ever having to come to this irritating, conceited pile of junk, with white hair and brown eyes. An extremely intelligent pile of junk to that. More of a reason why Seto was really trying hard not to punch the goddamn asshole on the nose and be done with it.

And the other reason was that Bakura had come into his personal space and leaned close to him, so that their faces were mere inches apart, and he gave a little smirk at Seto's alarmed expression, and muttered, "You're really cute, Head Boy…you think I would think they're for you or for anyone else but that cute scrawny rich kid?"

Seto scowled and pushed him away and said, "I don't have time for this crap, Bakura. Give me what I asked for and for God's sake, shut up. Don't you ever get tired of hearing your own voice?"

Bakura stared at him with narrowed eyes for a bit, then chuckled and crossed his arms, while casually leaning against the wall and muttered, "If you're buying the shot for Yami, you'll need someone to give it to him. I have the feeling you don't know how to do it."

It pissed Seto off the notion of not knowing how to do something, but it pissed him off even more to admit to himself that indeed, the irritating bastard was right and he did not know how to inject a dose of heroin. He knew there were a lot of things involved in that particular process and even though he liked to think that he knew quite a bit concerning every topic, he never even saw how a heroin shot looked like, never mind how to give it to someone else.

When his silence lasted for too long, Bakura pushed off the wall and told him, "Just tell me where he is. And I am feeling generous today; I will offer my services for free." He said the last part, raising one hand to place it on his chest and he looked mockingly sincere, as though he was making the greatest ever sacrifice.

Seto glared and, knowing that he had no other choice really because he didn't think Téa knew how to inject heroin either, snapped, "Fine; just stop talking! Your voice ticks me off." And he turned around to walk away from that concealed area of the building in the direction of the place he had his car parked. He could hear Bakura following him, so he took out his cell phone and called Roland.

After one ring, the phone was picked up and Roland's voice flooded in from the other side, acknowledging him, "Mr. Kaiba."

"Roland, bring a limo here to school in less than ten minutes and before you do, make sure that one of the guestrooms is prepared." He commanded, walking towards the car and he bit his lip slightly at seeing that Yami did not stir from where he had placed him in the backseat with his head leaned on Téa's shoulder.

He got the confirmation from Roland that what he asked for will be done so he hung up and opened the backseat's door. He bent down a little and asked in concern, "He's still out?" Téa nodded so he muttered, "Damn," under his breath and looked behind him to see Bakura doing something to his hair, so he made a disgusted face and turned back to Téa who was frowning slightly at the sight of the albino, and explained, "He'll give him the shot, since we both have no idea how to do it, and then one of my limos will take you and him to the Mansion. I'll catch up with you guys half an hour later."

"Where are you going?" she asked in a low voice, her hand pushing the damp, sweaty, golden bangs away from Yami's face.

"I'll go to his house and come up with some excuse to let him stay with me for two or three days." Seto told her, his voice determined. She stared at him in disbelief so he added, "Just tell me where he lives and I will settle it with the least possible harm. He can't go back there in this condition."

She had a doubtful look in her eyes for a bit, and she looked down to stare at Yami's pained features and his abnormally tense body, before she stared up at him once again and nodded and she was going to say something else, but Bakura's voice interrupted her, "You know, Head Boy, I am truly sorry to tell you that you are sadly mistaken if you think I have the whole day to stick around you and the cheerleader, but really…I would love it if you cut the crap and let me do what I came here to do."

Téa's eyes narrowed in anger, while Seto rolled his eyes and turned around and snapped, "Fine, stop bitching." And he looked down at Téa and told her, "Give him your place," and he turned back to Bakura and hissed, "And I swear on all that is dear if I sense that you're doing something funny, I'll rip your head off."

Bakura gave him a smirk and approached, just as Téa was getting out. He was going to pass some witty remark, but Téa glared heatedly at him and hissed, "Not cheerleader, stupid. Head Girl. And you better show some respect or I swear I'll bash your face in and no one in this place will ask me what I am doing."

Bakura sniggered and muttered under his breath, "Jeez people. Stop glaring and making threats like that. I am gonna pee my pants." And he laughed some more, before shaking his head, and he stared down at his backpack which he'd put on his lap and he opened it to take out some stuff.

Seto watched him carefully, as he placed a black leather strap on the seat and, with gentleness that had Seto staring in shock, he pulled Yami towards him and undid the sleeve of his school jacket and pulled it up, as high as it could go.

Seto had to raise his hand to his mouth to stop himself from gasping out loud at the expanses of scarred, mutilated flesh and the reddish tint to the tanned skin, and slight wetness still shining on the areas surrounding long, angry crimson cuts, which were partially healed and had congealed blood surrounding them, accumulating inside them and sometimes sliding in little clumps away from them. It was such a terrible sight; Seto had never seen this much blood up close. It looked like something out of those gory movies, which passed as horror movies nowadays due to how blinding the amount of red in them was.

"Well, Yami, you're one messed up kid…" Bakura chuckled and Seto had to summon all of his willpower not to catch him by his freaky white hair and keep tugging on it till he got his head ripped off. He managed to rein in his anger and watched quietly as Bakura tied the leather strap around Yami's upper arm, a small distance above his elbow and reached inside his bag to take out a leather case, which he opened, to reveal a set of twelve, menacing looking syringes, arranged in two rows on opposite sides of the case. He took one out, and fumbled around inside the bag –which a vague part of Seto's mind wondered what else exactly was inside it- and grabbed a piece of cotton and a bottle.

After wetting the cotton with the alcohol, as the smell indicated, and wiping at a part on the inside of Yami's elbow, clearing away the redness on it, he reached for the syringe and placed it at an angle on the tanned skin for a moment, before pushing it in with the quickness and confidence of one experienced regarding such an activity.

Seto realized that throughout the whole time Bakura pressed the plunger in the middle of the two metal circles he was using to hold the syringe with, he had been biting so hard on his lower lip. When it was all over and Bakura slid out the syringe and cast it aside and again, with amazing gentleness, he massaged the place he injected the heroin at, Seto felt a slight sting on his lower lip and tasted blood from where the skin broke. Bakura pulled the sleeve down and his hands rose to Yami's shoulders and he laid him down on the seat. Before their eyes, Yami's entire body seemed to relax and go limp, after the tension that seemed to pull it strained as though it was a tightly coiled like a spring, left it with the injection of the heroin.

"There; done." Bakura said and dumped his things inside his backpack once again and slid out of the seat. "Piece of cake eh?"

Immediately, Téa rushed forward and she sat down and pulled Yami's head on her lap, as though wanting to make sure that he was okay. Seto couldn't blame her. He too felt so horrified after seeing what Bakura just did and he didn't know how Yami did it to himself everyday just like that. He kept silent, not trusting himself to speak just yet, as Bakura made sure that everything was inside his bag again and stood beside him with a huge grin on his face, as though what he did was just completely normal.

"Well then, Head Boy, I will depart. But here," he said and gave Seto a small, sealed black plastic container. Seto stared down at it, then looked up at Bakura again in askance so the albino stated with a somewhat serious expression, "It's for later. I guess after he wakes up, he'll be able to handle things without me if he needs it."

Realization dawned on Seto and he reached into his pocket, while saying, "Oh, okay let me pay you for i…"

Bakura shook his head and told him, "This is for Yami…I won't take anything for it." Seto blinked in acknowledgement and Bakura turned on his heel and added in sarcasm, "Yami won't go easy on me for taking more money than necessary from his boyfriend…"

Seto scowled heavily, "We're no…"

"Yeah, okay, I get it." Bakura interrupted and walked away, not letting him continue.

Seto wanted to follow the bastard and kill him now that he didn't really need him anymore, but he was interrupted by the arrival of his black limo. Roland stepped out of it, and walked up to him, so Seto turned to his Camry and told him to take Téa and Yami to the Mansion. He took Yami in his arms once again and he placed him inside the limo by himself and after Téa got inside behind him, he turned to Roland and said that he was to carry Yami by himself into the guestroom he prepared and to make sure that a change of clothes was made available and that Téa was to be made as comfortable as possible.

He then leaned beside the window and when Téa opened it, he said, "Take care of him; I'll be right there after you in about thirty minutes. Just tell me where he lives, so I can go settle this mess."

She nodded and described the place. When he was sure he knew where the place she was describing was, he straightened and turned towards his Camry and got inside it and started driving to the place Téa described. He already thought of a good excuse to give the damned son of a bitch, who called himself a father. He just needed to find it within him not to beat the man black and blue the moment he set eyes on him.

He reached the villa soon and he drove inside through the gates and stopped the car in front of the house. He was amazed, as his eyes were fixed on the huge, magnificent looking house, which could be described more accurately as a manor house, with its huge building and its exquisite design and the tastefully designed garden surrounding the entire house, inside the high, protected walls surrounding the whole area.

He got out, straightened his uniform and rang the bell. He waited for a while, heard the sound of footsteps before the door opened and a man came out from behind it. Seto controlled himself with utmost difficulty and forced himself to give a professional little smile to the man with crimson eyes and slightly-ruffled hair and classy, casual clothes. If Seto hadn't known better, he would have thought that the person standing before him was in his early twenties. He pushed all the contempt and hatred he felt for the man standing before him who was now raising one eyebrow questioningly at him and he asked, "Would you be Mr. Motou?" The man frowned and nodded so the tight little smile Seto was giving widened and a little and he said, "My name Seto Kaiba and I am the…"

He was interrupted when the man smirked back at him knowingly and leaned on the door frame, with his arms crossed in front of his chest, "The Chief Executive Officer of KaibaCorp. Yeah, I know…"

Seto's eyebrow twitched slightly in irritation, but he didn't lose his smile, since he knew it wouldn't do anyone good if he lost his temper, and he faked a little laugh and said, "Well I was going to say 'head student of Domino High School', but yes, CEO of KaibaCorp also applies."

"So what can I do for you? Something tells me you are not here to strike a deal with me…" and he started laughing at his own joke.

Seto was so pissed, that he did not even find it within him to fake a laugh this time, and he kept the same face on, waiting for the man's bout of laughter to pass. And as he did so, he noticed the slightly dazed look in his crimson eyes and the way his pupils looked so dilated that he could make it out from where he stood a few feet away. He once again had to use all his resolve not to strangle the asshole and he said the moment the man stopped laughing, "No, actually. I came here to inform you that the school's basketball team was supposed to go on a national tournament and one of its members fell ill… so we took Yami in his place."

At that, the man's smile faded and a sinister expression overtook his features. He narrowed his crimson eyes and raised an eyebrow and pushed off the wall, "What?"

"I am sorry for the really short notice. But the kid called in a few moments before the bus took off and we had to find someone as good as he was and Yami happened to walk by right at that moment." Seto lied so smoothly, he had to congratulate himself mentally for his lying skills. "He did not want to go and said that you needed him to be at home, but the coach wouldn't let him leave at all. So I came here to inform you that our coach is sending his deepest apologies for taking Yami away like this, but it was inevitable."

Seto saw anger appearing on the man's features and his expressions hardened and Seto had to wonder if that was what Yami saw everyday from his father. "How long will he be gone?"

"Only two days from now; third day's morning at the max," Seto said with a smile.

Mr. Motou stayed silent for a bit then tutted and said in wonder, "Never knew Yami played basketball."

"Oh yes, he does. He is very good at it too," well, at least he did not lie much concerning this particular thing; Yami _did_ play basketball, but very rarely. Seto now knew why Yami rarely played anything at all.

"I see…" it came out as a slow, slightly suspicious whisper. Seto watched him carefully as doubt, wariness and fury danced on his devilishly handsome face and he hated, hated so much how a lot of this monster's represented Yami's wonderful curves and the prettiest elements of his face, only in a horribly, scarily harder, crueler way. He was aware that he just called Yami pretty and wonderful, but he did not have time to freak out about it since the man looked up at him with a cold smile and asked, "Are you sure Yami is the right person for this…?"

"Oh yes, I am positive. With him on the team, I am sure we'll win." Seto said with a nod. He then sighed and said, "I was told to inform you of how regretful our coach is, because you weren't informed beforehand but…"

"That is alright," he was interrupted again, but he was more disturbed by the sadistic, gleeful look appearing in the man's dark eyes than by the fact that he was interrupted like that in this way which he wasn't used to. "I am sure Yami is going to enjoy the experience very much."

"W…Well, I will get going now, Mr. Motou, thanks for your understanding." He stammered out, turning around to walk to his car; was the man really that heartless? Seto knew that the only reason he seemed so happy when he said those last few words, was because he knew. He knew Yami was hurt (something that was the reason why he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket right now to call his and his brother's personal doctor) and that playing around like that would mean even more pain for him. He just couldn't understand why the damned bastard was acting like that! What was his problem?

For God's sake, nowadays, people wanting to get married should be put under some tests by the government to check and see if they are psychologically fit to have children. Especially pretty children like Yami…

He sighed and after he hung with the doctor who promised to be there at the Mansion in less than half an hour, he tried to focus on the road and not start thinking of Yami's 'pretty and wonderful' features.

It was safe to say he failed miserably.

* * *

When he reached the Mansion and went inside to go upstairs to where the bedrooms were located, he found Téa sitting on the bed with Yami and she had a first aid box beside her and a bowl filled with water that the fog on the glass of the bowl indicated that it was warm. The water was a disturbing, murky, reddish color that sent a slight chill down Seto's spine and it had inside it a flannel wash rag, which was also stained with a dark red colored substance that did not require a genius to figure out what it was. Téa had a roll of soft, gauze bandages in her hand and she was gently holding Yami's left arm cradled on her lap and she was efficiently and carefully wrapping the bandages around it.

He walked closer to the bed and said in a low voice, "Hey."

She stared up at him with sad, tearful blue eyes and asked, "Will he be able to stay here for a bit?"

He nodded and whispered back, not wanting to wake Yami up, "Yes, it's settled."

There was silence for a bit, and Seto couldn't help but let his eyes drift over to Yami's exposed arm, which Téa still did not finish bandaging and he felt a horrible lurch in his stomach at the sight of the dozens of fresh and scabbed wounds all piled up on one another, covering scar tissue of old wounds.

"Stop staring as though it is some sort of a circus…" Téa remarked quietly and Seto had the feeling, as he averted his eyes away, that she wanted to yell at him. But she was right. As horrifically mesmerizing the sight was, after he pulled his eyes away, he realized that he had been intruding in some way or the other.

His eyes rose up once again, however, so he could stare at Yami's face and study it silently. He was relieved that that tight, tense look of anguish and pain disappeared and was replaced by a calm, peaceful, comfortable look.

"He looks so peaceful because of the trash he has in his bloodstream. Otherwise, he should be screaming in agony now," Téa informed him, obviously noticing that he was studying Yami's face so carefully. Seto looked at her questioningly, so she added, "His body is black and blue…it looks like a damned train hit him or something."

At that moment, Seto heard the doorbell ringing and he told her, "Well then I am glad I called my personal physician. Wait here, I'll let him in."

Téa had ranted and objected to Seto being there while the doctor conducted a close and thorough examination of Yami, but Seto was adamant; he stayed inside the room, watching every single thing going on. It took longer than Seto expected but he didn't wonder why as the elderly doctor tenderly took off the oversized pajama top Yami was wearing to reveal what was beneath it from bruised and scratched skin. Hit by a train had been the nearest thing to describe how bad the situation really was. He did not even want to think how Yami got his chest half smashed like that. The possibilities made him shudder.

He stood by the side, Téa beside him, watching as the man placed the finishing touches to wrapping Yami's slim torso with tensor bandages, after making sure that the bandages Téa placed on a nasty stab wound on Yami's shoulder, were alright. Seto had wanted to catch a glimpse of that tattoo Téa told him about, but then realized how _truly_ intrusive that would be. A thought occurred to him, however, just when the doctor was about to gather his things, and he turned to Téa and told her, sternly, "Téa, step outside for a bit."

"Huh…" she distractedly muttered, then stared up at him when the words sunk in and she frowned, "No!"

"I said…" he snapped then paused for effect and glowered some more, before adding, "Step outside for a little bit." As powerful as Téa was, she could not hold out much against the glare he was shooting her. She blinked and bit her lip doubtfully and nodded, before turning around to leave.

He turned to the old man and walked closer to him and leaned closer to say in a low voice, "Please check for signs of sexual assault."

The man stared up at him with a slightly surprised look, before nodding and muttering, "I'll ask you to stay here and help though."

Seto nodded and silently sat down at the edge of the bed, near Yami's head and stared down at him, while the man sat down on the opposite side and pulled the covers from the foot of the bed. He folded them and placed them on Yami's body to cover it from waist-down. Carefully, he folded one corner of them, the one facing away from Seto and he reached under them to pull off the loose pajama bottom. Seto kept his eyes fixed on Yami's unaware face, until the man told him, "Reach under the covers and pull his knee up a little bit…"

Seto fought the blush struggling to creep up his cheek and did as he was instructed. He did it as gently as he could; he didn't know if Yami was hurting where he was touching him (what he saw gave off the impression that every corner of Yami was painful) and he did not particularly feel like causing him anymore harm than necessary. He kept his eyes on Yami's closed eyes, watching his eyelashes flutter ever-so-slightly every now and again, while listening carefully if the doctor instructed him any further. That didn't stop him from running his thumb gently back and forth over the smooth skin on Yami's thigh, and he did not even bother to start reprimanding himself for it.

He made sure to keep his eyes only on Yami's face, wanting to maintain the other teenager's privacy and not violate it more than what had been done already. However, he never missed the initial reaction of the man when he obviously saw whatever he saw on Yami's body. The professional physician's face turned pale and grey with dismay and disbelief at what he saw, and he never missed the blood covering the piece of cotton that he used to clean the injury that was down there.

Soon, the doctor finished and he took off the gloves he had on and put all his belongings inside his briefcase after covering Yami up again and making sure he was completely warm and comfortable. He walked out of the room and Seto followed him. He closed the room's door and turned to find Téa standing with her hands on her hips and the doctor staring up at him with a dismayed expression.

"What in the world happened to that boy?" the doctor demanded, frowning.

Seto looked at Téa who sighed and raised her hand to her hair to brush it away from her eyes and muttered, "No point hiding it. His father is crazy." He stared at her with a blank expression, so she added, "His father did that to him."

"So…he's being abused?"

"A very mild way of putting it, but yes, something like that," Téa told him.

"Then why didn't you call the police?"

Téa shook her head and said, "This is up to him. He refuses to do that."

There was silence in the hallway for a bit, then the man muttered, shaking his head, "This…I've never seen this before. That is horrible."

Seto, who had been silent up to now, straightened and said to him, "Let's go downstairs, I need to ask you something." He then turned to Téa and told her, "I have an idea."

* * *

So comfortable…

That was the first thought to hit his hazy mind, as he shifted slightly with his eyes still closed. He wanted to return to sleep; he did not know for how long he will stay so comfortable and warm, but at the same time, he had gotten enough sleep and couldn't stay like that much longer. It was so comfortable. He couldn't remember the last time he was so comfortable.

He ached, yes. But the ache was just a dull throb here and there that was not even comparable to the other cozy, snug feelings he was experiencing. He was warm, his mind was somewhat clear, which indicated that he was not high, yet the clarity was not accompanied by any twinges related to the lack of the drug. He was lying on something so soft and pliable and the entire place smelt so nice. He breathed in deeply, with his eyes still closed and he turned his head and buried it into the pillow, while purring in content.

Yami let his mind drift and he tried to figure out where he was, before he suddenly froze and his eyes flew open and he bolted upright.

And that was when all comfortable feelings faded and a vicious, unbearable pain shot throughout his chest, and up his spine. He moaned in pain and grit his teeth and immediately lay back down on the bed and he kept his eyes shut, waiting for the waves of pain to pass. When they thankfully did, he opened his eyes, blinked a few times then stared around him.

He was in a huge room, furnished stylishly and with the most expensive materials in the market. The bed itself in which he was lying was so immense; he had four feet of space on either side of him. The soft lighting, along with the open windows that let in the cool breeze that kept the room's air fresh drift inside, had the most calming effect ever and he soon found himself relaxing once again and calmly, he started recalling what exactly happened. Last thing he remembered was being in terrible pain from being denied his shot of drugs for so long, then the pain in his chest and lower regions, the conversation with Téa which preceded his collapse…then Seto's sudden appearance and intervention.

Seto's arms…around him. Tight, warm, comfortable, gentle…so fucking safe and gentle.

He blushed and buried his face slightly into the pillow to try and stifle the warmth that crept onto his face.

At that moment, the door opened quietly. He turned his head towards the low sound and watched with thankfully clear vision that small, cute kid with raven hair – Seto's brother –getting inside and closing the door behind him. He turned around and jumped when he saw Yami staring at him. "Sh…you scared me…" he said, putting a hand to his chest. Yami did not answer him, and just kept staring as the boy approached the bed. He looked up at him as he stood beside the bed and stared at him with huge, innocent gray eyes and said, "Seto said you were sick. I am not supposed to be here. Do you want me to leave?"

Yami blinked, stared for a bit more, then shook his head 'no'.

"Okay then," the boy climbed onto the bed and sat with his legs crossed on it, beside Yami and he looked down at him and said, "My name's Mokuba. I am Seto's brother."

"Hi…" Yami mumbled, blinking and with all his strength of will, tried to push away a small voice that remarked about how this kid reminded him so much of…

"Are you hungry?" Mokuba asked him.

Yami once again shook his head in negation.

"Thirsty?"

Yami blinked and only then realized how much his throat felt parched and his lips felt dry and he nodded hesitantly. Mokuba grinned happily, obviously overjoyed that he will be doing something useful and reached over to the nightstand and grabbed the glass water jug and the glass which Yami noticed their presence only now and he poured out some water in it and held it up for him.

Yami carefully pulled himself into sitting position and, after struggling not to show how pained he really was, he took the glass from the boy and drank the water in it eagerly. When he was done, Mokuba took the glass from him and remarked, "You're really sick, aren't you?"

Yami stared at him for a little bit then murmured, "'S okay. I'm fine."

"You should lie down if sitting is not comfortable."

Yami stared some more at the kid, wondering if he was that obvious or if the boy was just too smart. Either way, he found that he was right and that he preferred to slide down to put his head on the pillow and he turned on his side so he was facing the boy. He cringed slightly at how much he was literally swimming inside the pair of pajamas he was wearing; they must be Seto's. He pulled the collar of the top so he could cover his shoulder, from where the garment fell and he asked Mokuba, who was watching him in amusement and interest, "How old are you?"

Mokuba grinned at him pleasantly and crossed his legs once more and told him, "Eleven." Yami nodded and his eyes drifted away, and he tried very hard not to cry at being reminded of Yugi. His eyes went back to Mokuba though when he heard him asking in a sad voice, "You're not in the mood to talk, are you?"

Yami looked at him again and mumbled, "I'm sorry…"

"Don't say sorry…I must be making you tired. I'll just go now…" and he got up and started leaving but then halted abruptly when Yami gasped and clutched his hand tightly and held onto it to what bordered on painful. Mokuba blinked in confusion as he stared down into Yami's desperate crimson eyes.

"D…Don't go…" Yami pleaded with desperation. He then seemed to realize that he must be hurting the boy with his death grip so he reluctantly and so very slowly, he let go of his hand and turned his eyes away to try and hide how distressed he was at the idea of Mokuba leaving, and hide the blush that crept over his cheeks and he added in a low voice, "Please…don't leave. I…I don't mind you staying…"

He could feel Mokuba's puzzled eyes staring at him for a few, yet very long, moments, before the boy slowly sat on the edge of the bed once more and said, "Okay…I'll stay."

Silence hung around them. Uncomfortable silence that made Yami want to cry at how much he was failing to keep this…this painful and, at the same time, completely blissful reminder of his sweet, deceased twin brother, around. His mind was working overtime, trying to come up with something, anything he could say to the boy to make the atmosphere in the room lighter…more bearable. Yet he failed, and he had a horrible headache all of a sudden, coupled with the sudden urge to just cry.

"It's okay. I am usually not in the mood to talk when I am sick either."

Yami looked up at Mokuba who said that with an understanding look in his gray eyes. He then put his eyes elsewhere again and quietly whispered, "Sorry…you just…remind me of someone."

Mokuba smiled, "Really? Who?"

Yami blinked, so that the tear accumulating in his eyes would quickly get evenly distributed beneath his eyelids and so that they wouldn't escape, and he smiled a little and said, "My brother."

Mokuba's smile turned contemplative and he carefully muttered, "And…err…how old is your brother?"

Yami smiled some more and told him, "He should be seventeen."

Confusion and uncertainty clouded Mokuba's eyes and he asked, "So…why is your brother not seventeen? Since you said he…should be seventeen, which means that he is not…" and he trailed off and blinked and went silent, realization dawning on him all of a sudden.

Yami broke the silence which extended for several moments and explained in an even voice, "He is dead."

Mokuba paled visibly and mumbled in a flustered way, "I…I'm sorry…I didn't know…"

"'S okay…not your fault anyway."

The silence stretched itself over them again. Heavy, sad, oppressive. And then Mokuba spoke again.

"How did…he die?"

Yami stared away at the corner of the comforter and stayed quiet for a bit, until Mokuba muttered apologetically, "I am sorry…please ignore the…"

"'S okay…" Yami repeated. He blinked and looked up at Mokuba once more and said, "He was killed."

"I am really sorry…" Mokuba repeated, looking wretched.

"Please don't apologize… just…" he paused and whispered, "Just stay here for a while?"

"Sure!" Mokuba said with a nod and a smile. He paused a little then laughed and said, "Seto asked me to find out how many of KaibaCorp's shareholders were living in the US, yesterday. He told me if I managed to find out before his employees, he would give me an allowance in my pocket money and he would ask me to do these things for him from then onwards."

Yami grinned and asked, "So did you get him what he wanted?"

Mokuba laughed, "I gave him the number after half an hour… He fired someone as a result, but I cannot say I am not grateful that that walking, pink globule who used to flirt with him is now gone."

Yami started laughing at the expression and listened with interest as Mokuba started telling him more of the general happenings of his day…the past week, anything and everything.

He did not know how long it had been since Mokuba sat with him in the room, but he knew that the sky, which had been a pale color outside when he first woke up, was now tinted heavily by the night's darkness. He was laughing quietly at one of Mokuba's infallible 'plans' to abduct the cookies from behind Seto's back when they both heard the door opening from behind Mokuba.

"Oh shit…it's Seto, right?" Mokuba cringed and whispered. Yami smiled and nodded, staring from around Mokuba's side to see Seto standing with a frown on his face and his arms crossed while staring at his brother's back. "He's scowling at me, right?" Yami nodded again, so Mokuba added, "And his arms are crossed?"

At that, Yami just started laughing weakly, not caring that with every chuckle, his chest ached. The boy was just so funny. And besides, he really, really wanted to laugh. Really laugh, not snort in sarcasm or smirk with a roll of his eyes. And the situation seemed so funny to him.

"What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to disturb Yami." Seto angrily demanded, taking a few steps closer to the bed.

Yami tilted his head upwards slightly so he could stare up into Seto's blue eyes which were staring down at Mokuba with a chastising expression in them. He was staring; he never saw Seto interact with his precious little brother before and he wanted to memorize every single moment, since he knew that the chances of ever getting this close to Seto Kaiba were extremely slim.

Mokuba was explaining at that moment the reason why he was here, "Well, you see, Seto, it's not that I did not obey you or anything, but I was taking a walk in the house and I got lost so I opened the first door I came in contact with and I happened to find Yami here…and he told me to…"

"What do you mean 'you got lost'? This room is _right beside mine_; don't tell me you got lost!" Seto narrowed his eyes and snapped.

Again, Yami couldn't help but start laughing. Everything was just so hilarious, he really couldn't help it.

At the sound of his low, weak chuckles, both brothers turned to him, before Mokuba tore his eyes away from Yami to stare up sheepishly at his brother and ask, "If we're not supposed to disturb Yami, then what are _you_ doing here?"

Yami watched as the unthinkable happened and Seto's cheeks reddened very slightly in the room's calming, low lights and he mumbled in a slightly flustered way, "I was…I was here to check and see if he's awake."

Yami stared at Mokuba as his grin turned slightly evil and he said, "I see…"

So he thought he should interfere somehow and he stared up at Seto and spoke for the first time, "'S okay…he was going to leave but I told him no."

Seto turned to him and kept staring at him for a bit, until he started fidgeting where he was lying on his side, and he felt his own face flushing all of a sudden for a reason he did not know. The silence stretched for a few more moments, until Mokuba cleared his throat, failed to get both of them to stare at him, then sighed and said, "I'll leave you guys alone." And he slid off the bed to walk to the door.

The sound of the door clicking closed behind Mokuba was Yami's signal to try and break the silence so he cleared his throat and muttered in a low voice, "Erm…th…thank you…" Seto sat down on the edge of the bed, making him shrink very slightly at first then relax. He nibbled on his lower lip in worry, as Seto just sat there, with his head titled slightly, making his hair lean towards gravity, and with his intense, sexy blue eyes, which sent chills down Yami's spine were narrowed in a thoughtful expression, as the brunet simply stared at him in silence. "I…I am sorry…I must have disturbed y…"

"Don't say these things." Seto interrupted him with a flat tone of voice.

Yami blinked and stared away at some random corner of the room and mumbled, "Thank you anyway."

"You're welcome, but I really haven't done anything." Seto told him.

Yami wanted to object and say that he did a lot by merely caring to bring a worthless pile of garbage like him back to his own house, to get him his dose of poison which he was a pathetic slave to and…if he was not mistaken, the comfort he was feeling must be because of some medical attention or the other. But he did not say anything and he bit his lip and closed his eyes and buried his face into the pillow to try and hide the anguish on his face; to try and protect whatever ragged relics of his pride were left.

"I need to go home…" he said, pushing the covers away, meaning to get up and leave before he broke down. He had been dreading the moment he did that. He was already so late to get back home, he was in for a really, really nasty beating tonight. He might as well get up, get dressed into his clothes and just leave.

But Seto's hand on his good shoulder kept him lying down.

"I went to your house today." Yami's eyes widened in alarm; what? The question must have appeared in his eyes so Seto added, "I spoke to your…erm…to Mr. Motou, and I told him that someone from the basketball team called in ill and we took you to substitute him on the team in the tournament somewhere else in the country. You're staying here for a day or two more until you're okay enough to go back there."

Yami blinked again and went silent. Seto knew. He knew everything. How shameful! He felt like digging a hole in the ground and burying himself in it to run away from all of this. He buried his face in the pillow once again and kept his eyes shut tightly, and he tried to prevent tears from escaping.

"Yami…" he refused to look when he heard his name being called, but Seto was insistent. "Yami, look at me, please." He carefully opened his eyes and turned his head so he could stare at a point on Seto's chest, instead of in his eyes. He was thankful the brunet was satisfied by that, as he said, "I want to help you…"

"I don't want your charity," he said flatly.

"I offer charity to those who need charity. You don't need that; you need help." Seto stated. Yami still didn't look at him. "If you find the chance…to get rid of your heroin addiction…" at that, Yami's eyes immediately rose up to meet Seto's blue ones with a confused, disbelieving expression in them, as he continued, "Would you grab it?"

What? Yami thought in confusion. How? Just how was that possible? He tried, he tried so hard by himself and it never worked. He would be brought down to his knees each time, crawling in desperation for his heroin whenever he went too long without it. How was Seto expecting that idea to work? He already gave up on trying long back…

"What…What are you saying?" he voiced out his thoughts, a confused expression in his crimson eyes.

"I spoke to my personal physician today Yami. And I asked him if there was a way to rid you of this stupid addiction that makes you vulnerable to…_him_!" Yami cringed slightly at the venomous way Seto was speaking with, but he paid more attention when the brunet carried on, "So he said that yes, there is a way. It will take about two weeks to make you require only one shot of heroin per two or two and a half days."

Yami just stared blankly at him and remarked, "I put that crap inside of me twice on a normal, good day…"

"Exactly…" Seto told him.

Yami stared some more at him, before mumbling and looking away, "It will never work…"

"Look!" Seto interrupted his discouraging sentence, and made him look up to stare into the beautiful blue eyes, the memory of which gave him a lot of trouble in the past few days, and he listened as Seto resumed, "It is very, very obvious that you're not an addict because of your own stupidity, as I had thought." Yami did not know if he should be happy Seto's idea of him improved, or if he should feel affronted at being thought of in a bad way in the first place, so he kept silent as Seto carried on, "So I don't think you like the idea of ending your life because of an overdose or with some nasty disease or the other."

Yami kept looking at him in silence. True, what Seto said was. He did not want that. He did not want to die sooner than he should. He did not want to die convulsing and with his mouth foaming and he definitely did not want to die on the streets in some alleyway, after getting stared at with disgust, sympathy or indifference. He did not want to have his entire future falling apart because he failed to pass a medical checkup.

And so, he voiced the next question that queried the next flaw in this oh-so-perfect little plan, mentally praying that Seto would somehow find a way around it, "How the hell am I supposed to get away from home for two weeks?"

"I found a good excuse today…I am positive that with me pulling some strings in school, I'll will get an even better one to make you stay here with me in the Mansion for two or two and a half weeks." Seto told him, a certain expression in his eyes. Yami kept staring at him, fear and doubt making him hesitant, so Seto sighed and got up and asked, "Listen…I know it won't be a wonderful joyride, but wouldn't it be better? You'll cut down on how much you use this poison to one-fourth of your normal dosage, which means that even when you go back there, you can carry on with this withdrawal plan by yourself. He won't be able to use that against you anymore…"

The idea sounded too good to be real…but then the pain he was in before he woke up a while ago, it made him shiver in fear and he uncertainly mumbled, "I…I don't know…"

"I spoke to the man today, Yami and he told me that it won't be as bad as stopping the heroin dosages abruptly. It will be a step by step process and it will not be as bad as you think…"

Seto's words, so convinced, managed to send an odd sense of trust through him. He knew he trusted this young man standing beside him; but he just didn't trust himself to be strong enough to do this.

When his silence went on for a while, Seto sighed and mumbled, "Just give it some thought. I know you will come to the right decision, because I know that you don't want to go through what happened today morning ever again."

Yami had to agree. He didn't want to experience the complete helplessness he felt yesterday lying in his father's bed acting his whore, trying to please him as much as possible; trying to make him feel satisfied enough so he would have a little bit of mercy in his blackened heart, to get up and unlock the door to his room. He never wanted to experience the horrible sense of despair he felt after his father left him lying in a disgusting pool of sweat, blood and semen, with all of his efforts and broken sense of worth blown away like ashes placed on a window sill on a cold, windy winter day.

Oh yes, he would think of what Seto suggested just now…

* * *

A/N: thanks for reading.

Hathor…


	8. Chapter 8

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Eight**

That night, Seto took a final walk in the downstairs level of his Mansion. He checked that the lights were off and that the TV and Playstation were switched off and that the cookie jar still had eighteen cookies in it. He found everything in order except of course for the fact that there were thirteen cookies in the jar and not eighteen.

He was still grumbling to himself about how this time he would really stop the cook from making anymore cookies as he walked into the hallway leading into the Mansion's bedrooms. He was going to go into his room, but stopped in the middle of the hallway when he saw the door of Yami's room open and saw him sitting on his knees in front of it. His hand extended out before him so he could shake it with the paw of the kitten Mokuba picked off the street a few days ago when he found it starving near the gates of the Manor grounds.

Yami obviously heard him coming up the stairs and looked up at him. Seto blinked and gave him a small smile, which Yami did not return. He instead put his eyes down on the kitten which approached him and tried to nuzzle close to him, but he got up and backed away from it.

"Sorry, it just…came into the room and…err…" he mumbled, and Seto saw a flush spreading on his pale skin as he trailed off uncertainly. He stood staring at his feet where the brown kitten was rubbing against his leg, as though asking him to be friendly again. He stared down at it for a bit, then turned away to go inside the room.

Seto frowned and raised an eyebrow. He bent down to carry the tiny, abandoned kitten and he rose up with it so he could walk into the room after Yami, who was getting into bed. He approached the bed and asked, "How are you feeling now?"

Yami looked at him while pulling the covers closer to himself, "Better, thank you."

Seto looked at him sideways, stealthily, but carefully, searching for signs of deception of any type. He found none, so he approached the bed with slow steps, with the kitten still in his arms. When Yami gave no hint of being uncomfortable with him approaching, he sat on the edge of the bed and placed the kitten on Yami's lap. "She likes you, obviously." He remarked when Yami looked at him blankly.

"Oh," Yami simply said, turning his attention to the small animal.

Silence hung over the room for a while, Yami playing with the kitten, and Seto watching Yami. It was a little awkward, the silence was. But Seto somehow…needed it. He wanted to keep studying Yami like that, sitting there with the little cat, not paying attention to the fact that he was being watched. For some reason, watching the tame, silent person who sat down before him seemed like the most interesting thing in life right now. Even more interesting that watching the impolite, unruly ruffian Yami was in school.

Suddenly, Yami whispered, "Why are you staring at me?"

Seto blinked, realizing that Yami had been aware of him staring. "Sorry," he muttered, but did not stop staring.

"You're still staring at me," Yami remarked, finally looking up to meet his blue eyes.

"Yes, I am."

"I am getting nervous."

Seto saw one of his hands rising to the opposite arm, so he could begin removing the pearly white bandages around it. Seto scowled and admonished, "Don't do that Yami!"

"It's making me uncomfortable. It's itching." Yami stated flatly. "And besides, there's no point in keeping them on," he added, resuming his almost-mechanical actions. He seemed to be unaware of anything going on save for his task of undoing the bandages. Until the kitty started licking at his fingertips. He immediately abandoned his task and pulled the animal's tiny body near, hugging it closer to his chest. By doing that, he obviously pulled on his half-shattered chest. And so, immediately, he let the kitten go and gasped loudly in pain, doubling over slightly with the intensity of it.

Immediately, Seto was by his side, holding his hand. The brunet felt the small hand he held tightening so much in his hold, as Yami tried to ride the final waves of pain that took him by surprise right then. Yami was panting heavily with exhaustion and Seto had no idea what his own hand was doing, by gently running its fingers through the mass of silky, tri-colored hair.

The kitten was seated on its hind limbs with its head titled sideways, as it stared at its new friend in incomprehension.

A few moments later, Yami's grip on his hand loosened and he seemed to become aware of their position; Seto was sitting right beside him, and had one arm around his shoulders, his hand on Yami's head, while his other hand was holding onto Yami's. Seto's chest was cradling Yami against it gently, so that he was half hugging him in a more than just an interesting position. Too close…

Seto felt him stiffening, obviously uncomfortable with the close physical contact. He immediately moved away, concealing his regret at the sudden wince that appeared on Yami's face when his only support seemed to disappear, forcing him to hold himself up on his own. "Sorry," Seto mumbled, but did not move to help him.

Yami stared at him in annoyance, "Stop looking at me like I'm suffering from rape trauma syndrome!"

The bluntness of the words left Seto speechless for a while, before he scowled and snapped, "Aren't you?"

Yami gave him a pained little smirk and pleasantly informed him, "I think I am way beyond that stage right now." And he sank back against the pillows, picking up the cat once more, this time more carefully. "And we're not going to start discussing this now, so please drop it."

Seto scowled some more, "Sure… let's just not talk about it. It is exactly as simple as having an elephant inside a room, and saying oh nothing is out of place, everything's fine."

"Look…" Yami started then sighed tiredly, before resuming, "I am very tired…and I feel icky and sick and I don't want anything more than digging a hole and crawling in it to stay there forever." Seto pursed his lips and was about to pass a witty remark, before Yami concluded, "I don't want to talk about this. I am sorry if you might think of that as rude but then again I was never known for my manners. So please…stop pushing the subject!"

Seto grudgingly bit down a retort, and went silent, watching Yami dealing with the cat. A while of silence settled comfortably on them, until Seto got an idea.

"Umm…would you like to take a shower? I will be able to put back the bandages."

Yami looked up at him, a slight redness spreading on his features, "I…I don't think I'll be able to…" he paused for a bit, as if not knowing how to phrase it, before he looked down in humiliation and whispered, "Hurts to move much…"

Seto blinked once. "Okay, wait here a second," he said and quickly got up. He didn't know how he made it so quick but within very few moments, he was sitting on the edge of the bed once more, holding out two pills to Yami and a glass of water.

Yami stared at the pills apprehensively.

"More drugs?" he asked, glancing up at Seto sarcastically.

"They'll help." He affirmed with a grin. "Trust me," he added.

Yami took the two pills and downed them with the water, handing Seto the glass once more and settling back against the pillows. "Well? Do you wanna have a quick bath now?" Seto asked, his iron will helping him control the blush that fought to surface onto the fair skin of his face. Completely professional, this was. Nothing to blush or fuss about! He vehemently decided so in his head, hoping that Yami would see that too.

Yami, on the other hand, couldn't hide the redness that spread all over his face and he stuttered, "I think whatever you just gave me will make it even more difficult for me to take a bath…"

Seto stared at him, face blank completely.

"I am pretty sure I implied that I can help you."

Yami's blush darkened. "I am not handicapped to have someone help me take a bath! No!"

Seto raised an eyebrow, gaining some confidence from God-knows-where, "No? You're not handicapped at the moment? You can't even breathe properly. And why can't I help you? Don't worry; I am not particularly feeling like doing anything to you when you're messed up like this."

At that, Yami's blush darkened even more, but an affronted look appeared in his eyes, "Messed up? And I suppose you're going to enlighten me on what the fuck that means, won't you?" and he crossed his arms.

He might have looked threatening if it wasn't for the way he flinched when he moved.

"I meant that I am not interested in molesting you when you have almost half your body smashed like that." Seto pleasantly told him, getting up to walk into the bathroom, keeping the door open as he ran the water into the huge tub, which he had plugged closed. "I did not mean it in any other way, and even if I did, it won't be very far from the truth," he called, while pouring some of the rose-smelling bath foam into the water, along with the running stream pouring from the faucet.

And just as he was adjusting the water's temperature, he heard Yami cursing, grumbling loudly in an extremely offended tone, "Awfully sophisticated and sweet, aren't you?"

Seto rose up to his feet, turning to the bathroom's door and walking out into the room, where he found Yami attempting to stand on his own. He shook his head and approached Yami, taking his arm in his grasp to give him something to lean against. Yami stared up at him in silence so he asked, "What?"

Yami looked down, "N…Nothing…" they made their way towards the bathroom, but halfway through Yami stopped and hissed at him, "I can still bite you, Seto…I swear if you try anything I'll…"

Seto sighed, cutting him off with an exasperated expression, "I am not interested right now, Yami… stop bitching, okay?"

Yami's scowl stayed on his face as they entered the bathroom. Seto couldn't stop the blush this time when Yami stepped away from him slightly, starting to unbutton the oversized pajama top. He stared down at his feet, providing Yami with a little bit of privacy. "Do you need a hand?" he asked quietly, not liking the sounds of pain Yami tried stifling (and failed).

"I might need help with these mummifying things…" Yami's voice came pained. Seto turned to see him standing naked completely, save for the bandages he was wrapped in. Seto kept his cool at seeing the pretty body before him, trying not to stare. But it was impossible and before he could gather enough willpower to tear his eyes away from the slender form Yami had raised an eyebrow, narrowing his eyes, "You could at least have the decency to pretend that you're not staring."

Seto glared, raising an eyebrow, his embarrassment turning to fury, "Oh, _do_ shut up, Yami! You would not have minded me staring at you back in the lockers when you dropped to your knees in front of me." He had to summon every ounce of his strong will not to stare away in shame at the visible wince that brushed Yami's pale features. Harsh…that was truly harsh of him. "Just keep quiet and let me help you," he said coldly, stepping closer to Yami.

The other stayed perfectly still, expression completely blank, as Seto unwrapped the bandages from around his thin chest. He kept his expressions placid as possible as the black and blue shades on Yami's skin appeared. Yami was so silent throughout it all, head bowed, letting Seto take off the bandages without so much as a protest.

"C'mon, get into the water. It's warm," Seto said, tossing the bandages elsewhere.

Yami turned…

And Seto was thanking God that Yami couldn't see him, because there was no power in the world that could have stopped his hand from rising to his mouth, to try and stifle the horrified gasp that wanted to break through his lips at what he saw on Yami's back.

He should not have been surprised. Really. Téa had told him. She told him that Yami had a tattoo. She described to him how it looked like. He should have expected this…

But to actually see for himself…that was different. His eyes got stuck on the colored skin. Angel wings, so, so pretty, detailed and very delicate, spread on Yami's small shoulders, forming a slight arc, with the lower tips of the wings ending near the small of his back. The feathers were given so much detail and attention, making them look even prettier than the concept behind them. But the innocence of the wings, the ultimate beauty of them, was marred darkly by the Gothic-style, old-English script, spelling out the word, 'WHORE', with a line striking through the word. He felt bile rising in his throat, burning it terribly. He couldn't tear his eyes away, even after Yami's body disappeared into the water, a slight purr of happiness leaving those wine-colored lips.

He should have helped Yami get into the tub, but he was too shocked. He had been paralyzed by it. He only came out of it when Yami involuntarily let out a whimper when he challenged the pain for the sake of pulling his knees closer to his chest, wrapping his scarred arms around them. He was looking at the bubbles that had light reflected off them in dozens of different, bright colors, as though they were the most fascinating thing in the world.

Finally, he looked up…

And saw Seto staring at the tattoo.

Immediately, he looked down again. "Umm… that's… err, I…I got it last…last year from the…"

"You don't have to start making up a lie, Yami." Seto stopped him. Yami's head snapped up, and he saw those big crimson eyes staring at him in shock and slight horror, so he slowly sank to his knees beside the tub, sitting on the floor, facing Yami. The other just kept staring at him in shocked silence, so he calmly explained, reaching for the washcloth nearby and dipping it into the water to wet it, "You got that thing when you were thirteen, when your father took you to a tattooist who wouldn't make a fuss out of giving a child a tattoo."

He looked up, away from the now heavy washcloth to see Yami's wide, humiliated crimson eyes that kept wavering away from his.

Seto reached for the side of Yami's face, which he noticed had slight blotchiness, shaped like ragged lines. "Please don't lie to me…I _really_ want to help you," he said, not meeting Yami's eyes and dabbing at his face gently.

Yami blinked and let his eyes fall away from Seto's hand and the washcloth which was, Seto knew, soothing right now. He stared away from him, before burying his head into his knees. Seto caught sight of a sudden wetness appearing on the pale, tanned features, before Yami's face was hidden when he did that. He found himself staring at Yami's head, and his hair which scattered all over his bare arms and his back.

Seto stared at him uncertainly, unsure of what to do. He let the towel drop from his hand, which he raised to place on Yami's head hesitantly. He didn't touch Yami's skin, in case he did not like it. However, he could see the slight, thin tremors running through Yami's body. He wanted to say something, offer some comfort, but Yami suddenly looked up at him, eyes tearful and bloodshot.

"I don't want to go back…" he whimpered, one wet hand rising to clutch at Seto's wrist desperately. "I don't want to go back there…"

"Why won't you go to the police, Yami? No one will think any less of you if you do…" Seto quietly suggested.

At that, a small sob escaped unsuspectingly past Yami's lips, and he whimpered, "I did once… he told them… he told them I am crazy. And they believed him!"

Seto sighed, "You should try once more."

"Do you have…any idea…what happened to me after the first time I _tried_?" Yami demanded, face angry and wet with tears. "What if I don't get it right this time and they believe him, that I am just a nutcase? I'd love to say he'll kill me, hell, if I knew he'd kill me, I'd do it and fail on purpose just so I can be killed… he won't kill me, he'll do worse. No thank you, I am not willing to _try_!"

Seto bit his lip slightly as Yami looked away once more. "If he doesn't kill you…doesn't that give you hope…that you have survived for a reason?" he had never been a believer in crap like that, really…but it just seemed so right to think like that right now. Why was Yami still alive till now? There must be a very good reason for it. The world was like that. The law of natural selection was like that. Those who are not needed…die.

Yami looked at him again, silent, tearful…

"Whatever reason that may be…it should make itself known…soon." He mumbled in an unhappy, low voice.

They fell into silence after that. Seto helped Yami clean up until he was feeling so much better, that when he was helped back into the bed after Seto wrapped the bandages around him properly, he fell asleep before his head hit the pillow. Seto had stayed around for a while longer, tidying the room a little bit, even if he knew that that was just an excuse to stay in the room to watch Yami sleep with the cat curled up beside him on the bed.

The next day, Mokuba had made sure to keep Yami company. Seto had protested that Yami may not be up to staying with Mokuba for so long, but Yami reassured him that it was fine and that he was enjoying Mokuba's company very, very much. Eventually, Seto was convinced and he was sure he had heard Yami laugh from where he and Mokuba had been sitting with him in his office.

It was nice, having Yami with them like he was now. Even if he had started showing signs of discomfort at having his drug held from him during the next day to when he was first brought to the Mansion, it gave him a huge spark of hope that with one pill of the painkillers the doctor had given him, Yami managed to make it till the late afternoon without his drug. It made Seto smile and calmly tell Yami on their way back to the guestroom, where Seto had kept the extra shot Bakura had given him the day before, "See? You _can_ make it…"

Yami had smiled and that smile had stayed on his face till the end of the day.

But the next day, the smile had disappeared, as fear started setting in. Yami had told him that he wished to go back home that night. It would do no one any good if his father became too suspicious and on the contrary, it would hinder whatever plan they might have in the future.

As much as Seto was reluctant to let Yami go, he knew the other was correct. They had no other choice. The lesser time Yami spent away from home, the better. The better in the long-run, that is.

So, that afternoon, Yami had gotten dressed in his uniform which was cleaned and fixed after the state it had been in when it was removed from Yami's body and was getting inside Seto's car, after saying goodbye to Mokuba. Seto started driving away, and there was silence in the car.

Seto spoke after a minute of this silence. "Please be careful. Try not to provoke him much."

Yami looked at him in silence, as though wondering if Seto really thought his dad needed to get provoked to act the way he does.

Seto sighed, "Look, just take care for the next few days. I'll pull some strings in school to try and get us a leave for at least two weeks."

Yami nodded keeping his witty retort to himself.

He asked Seto to stop the car outside his house's gates. "He'll see you and notice something is weird. I better make him think that I came walking," Yami explained with sudden calmness that Seto didn't from where it washed over him like that.

Yami opened the door, but before he could put his other leg outside the car, Seto grabbed his arm, halting him. Yami looked back, first at Seto's hand, then raised his questioning crimson eyes to meet Seto's expressionless blue ones. "Seto…?"

Seto stared silently at him for a long while, until confusion appeared on Yami's face, so his gaze wavered and he mumbled, "Please be careful…"

Yami stared at him for a while longer, then shakily offered a very small smile. "Thank you…for everything."

And he got out of the car, closing the door behind him and walking away without a backward glance.

* * *

It had been too calm…too suspicious. The way his father welcomed him home…for God's sake, the fact that he actually _welcomed him home_ itself made all the red alarms start off in Yami's mind, putting him on the edge at all times. He was almost positive that when he would go upstairs to his room, he would find it locked, but to his surprise and apprehension, he found that he guessed wrong. The door was opened and his things were exactly in the same place he put them, not one of his shots missing, none of his money taken.

He couldn't help but keep staring behind his back every few seconds as he changed in his room into something more comfortable. Even as he sat on the bed contemplating what was going on, the sudden kindness his father was treating him with, he kept flinching at the slightest of sounds, and glancing worriedly at his room's door. He was expecting the monster to storm in any second to do something nasty to him as usual.

The monster did arrive, but not in a manner he expected. He knocked on the door. For the love of all that was still good in the world…_knocked_! When Yami hesitantly called him in, not knowing if he was signing the contract of his death or worse, he slowly opened the door and didn't burst in with deafening noise. Yami stared up at him in concealed trepidation as he stood at the foot of the bed.

"You're having dinner with me downstairs today." His father finalized.

"I'm not hu…"

"Seven! Be there Yami, I don't want any arguments." Samuel barked, scowling at him.

Yami, although bewildered by his father's sudden interest in his meals, nodded, not really having any choice. He knew, as the man turned around to march out of the room –and closing the door _quietly_— behind himself, that something very, very bad was going to happen to him. Was he going to poison him? It was a pleasant thought; at least he'll suffer only one last time, then get relief.

Sighing, and trying not to get hopeful, Yami got up from the bed and headed towards his bathroom to take a shower and get dressed.

At seven, he was sitting at the dinning room table, avoiding his father's gaze, which had been fixed on him ever since he entered the room. He kept his calm, cool façade on, feigning indifference, even if his skin was crawling at how his father was looking at him. He kept his eyes cast down while his hands shuffled the food around with the fork and knife, his stomach too unsettled to be hospitable to any solid food.

"So…" his father suddenly spoke and Yami couldn't help but flinch very slightly at the suddenness of it. He looked up, to see a satisfied smirk on the handsome face, whose owner resumed, "How was the match?"

Yami stared at him for a while. Seto had told him what excuse he used to give them those two days but he wasn't sure if his father was trying to make him blurt out something by this interrogation.

"Our school won…" he finally decided to say. The original team which had gone for the match _did_ win the game.

"Well, congrats."

Yami stared up at him again, hiding his bewilderment. The silence continued for a few more minutes, save for the clink of cutlery against the porcelain of the expensive plates. Yami did not raise his head from his food, until his father pushed a glass of wine towards him.

He eyed it suspiciously for a few seconds then stared up.

"Have some… you don't want?" Samuel asked, raising his own glass to his lips to take a long sip from it.

Yami stared at the glass uncertainly; this was where his suspicions that his father was about to poison him came true.

"No, I don't want," he quietly answered, looking away.

Even if he had been expecting it, he couldn't help but flinch when his hand was grabbed harshly, pressed upon with enough force to break his indifference and make a pained expression surface on his previously placid features. He squirmed against his will against the pain when his father's fingers dug into his arm, where his cuts were still not fully healed.

"_I_ want you to have some, Yami…" Samuel hissed at him, then his voice softened, as he said, "For me…?"

If Yami had the choice, he would kill the man with his bare hands, never mind do anything for him at all. Yami was reminded at that moment of a charming snake, forceful during the attack, soft and pretty before and after it.

He swallowed nervously and took the glass, starting to sip from it. He couldn't taste anything weird, but he knew that the glass wasn't as innocent as it looked. He downed its contents after a minute, allowing himself the very small comfort of the enjoyable, pleasant bitterness of the wine, while waiting for pain to attack him any minute to leave him dead in its wake.

"Here, have another one…" his father handed him another glass. Yami stared at him in silence, trying to ask out of this with his eyes, even if he knew it was quite hopeless. "C'mon, drink it up."

Yami sighed. He knew what was coming next. This wasn't the first and won't be the last time his father intoxicated him with alcohol like this. He figured he should just go along with what was expected of him, since he really thought it was too early to get on his father's wrong side yet.

He drank the new glass of wine…followed by another and another…

The world was spinning slightly around the edges, but he was used to that. He was just waiting now. Soon, his father got up, after dismissing the maid and telling them to leave any dishes to be washed, for tomorrow and that they were to depart from the place within ten minutes at the max. Yami was barely aware of that happening, but he realized suddenly that he was completely alone in the dinning room, with his father moving out of his chair to sit down in the one beside his.

Yami looked with wavering eyes to his side, seeing another glass getting pushed his way. He kept staring at it, not wanting to take it, feeling sick. The feeling was different from usual and he had no idea what was going on. His body was getting hotter for some reason and the comfortable, baggy clothes he was wearing seemed to be suffocating him. He shifted, ignoring the offered glass.

Thankfully, he wasn't forced to drink it this time, but instead, he suddenly found himself wrapped inside two strong, familiar…terrifying arms. He didn't have the will to fight, or he simply knew that it didn't matter, so he allowed himself to stay still while a pair of hot, wet lips trailed along the side of his neck. A hand was slipping inside the waistband of the pair of track pants he was wearing. He knew it was coming…

He shuddered and stiffened in horror when he felt the horrifyingly familiar slender fingers wrapping around his flaccid, uninterested length, slowly stroking him in an attempt to spark a reaction from him. Yami knew that soon he would become hard from the stimulation. It was just the normal reaction of the male's body. It was completely detached from the mind. The nerves and the blood vessels there responded immediately, without consulting the brain as to whether this was okay or not.

But this time, something was stranger. Just like the effect of the alcohol was not the usual one, the effect of his father's touch was different this time.

Usually, with his willpower, he would manage not to get an erection from the touch, except after fifteen minutes of continuous stimulation. It made his father so angry and made Yami amused to try and make the monster tick. But now? After less than ten strokes, he felt his body tingling and a familiar, pleasant, yet very unwanted, burn.

He gasped, squirming and trying to move away, but he was trapped in the strong arms. He turned his wide, horrified eyes onto the crimson eyes that his own were such a perfect, lovelier ersatz of. He saw evil, mischief…a terrible, gloating expression that made a chill run through his overheated body.

"Wha…" he started, but then groaned loudly when a rough thumb ran over the head of his length, making little shudders of pleasure tear through his entire body.

He felt a hot breath near his ear, and heard Samuel whisper, "I put Cilias into your wine, Yami…"

His eyes widened in terror and he froze completely, unsure whether what he heard was true or if his mind was playing tricks on him. No…it couldn't be true…

But it seemed real…it felt real enough, because the drug seemed to be already kicking in. but Yami knew that, with the amount of wine he drank, he most probably overdosed. He knew that it would have no bigger effect on the erection already driving him mad right now, but the side effects would be there…

He whimpered and once more pushed against the arms holding him. But why exactly he tried to get away, he didn't know. Was he trying to run away? Was he trying to delay what was coming? Or was he trying his hardest to free his hands so he could reach down to stroke himself?

"Shhh, Yami…don't fight me now…" his father whispered to him, rising to his feet. Yami was pulled up with him, unable to fight and unable to focus on anything except the sudden, unexpected hardening of his body against his will. He was still young, even if he thought his powerful will when it came to gaining an erection at stimulation, was because of the heroin he had been consuming for the past three years. His body was still at its full energy since he certainly never pleasured himself like most boys his age did, but the only times he was aroused were the times when his father forced him to. That didn't happen a lot, either, since the fucking son of a bitch didn't care about anything except his own pleasure.

He was suddenly aware that he had been placed on the dinning table, his legs dangling off the edge, spread wide, and the man standing between them, hand still stroking him gently. Too gently…too frustratingly gently…

He groaned and tried to get up, but he was pushed down, "Don't move, Yami…"

It was impossible. Yami squirmed, trying to free his hand, which were pinned together above his head on the table, so that he could reach into his pants to stroke himself to completion. He was not even denying it anymore. It was a shameful feeling, to be so aroused suddenly in this small period of time. He wanted to get rid of that erection and allow himself to feel the pain of the rape later. It was easier to deal with it when there was pain. When there was no pleasure while he did…_that_ with his own father.

The touches were too gentle. Too gentle to be real. And they weren't. This was all just another way to break him and make him suffer.

He closed his eyes, trying to shut out the feel sharp teeth nipping at his skin, heightening the feelings and making more of his blood rush to his lower regions, making him feel even more lightheaded and out of focus. He was panting heavily, nails dragging across the surface of the wooden table, fists clenching around the tablecloth as he tried to ignore the completely devastating feeling of being aroused beyond the point where he could form any coherent thought, save for one single plea to be able to find release. He didn't even realize he had started moaning and bucking his hips up, trying to increase the friction of that ever-slow hand against his overly-sensitized skin.

"Does it feel nice, Yami…? Is that why you're making those lovely sounds…" he heard the monster whisper in his ear, his hair tickling the side of Yami's face and hot breath making goosebumps appear on his skin.

He bit on his lip as hard as he could, so he could stifle anymore sounds that might defy him and leave unsuspectingly past his lips. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop his hips from moving around.

"Yami, stop moving!" he was scolded. He opened his eyes that had slid shut sometime during the past few minutes, to stare at his father who was smirking in smugness that made Yami's want to scratch his face increase tenfold.

His hazy eyes tried glaring with as much strength as he could gather and he spat out, even if his voice came out hoarse, "You are an animal…"

His father laughed, shaking his head and making his hair whirl around his head. "That's not the way to speak to me right now Yami…"

And he reached with one hand above his head. He then moved away slightly, making Yami try to make a dash for it. He was grabbed around the waist and hoisted onto the table once more. Thankfully, Yami placed his free hands on the surface of it, which lessened the impact on his still-healing ribs. However, the pain came soon, when both hands were grabbed and twisted behind him, making him land on his chest on the table.

He cried out in pain and defeat, knowing, as his hands were crossed over one another at the wrists that there was no escape out of this one. He felt a cloth getting wrapped around his wrists, then tightened painfully. He struggled, trying to remove his hands from one of the napkins which had been folded on the table, which was now binding him in a rather secure grip.

He sagged tiredly after he felt his father wrap another napkin around the first one, further making sure that he found no escape out of this at all. He took deep, shuddering breaths, trying to calm himself down. He was still hard and he moaned loudly when he realized that what his father told him was not a hoax and was very much a reality.

He felt those rough hands once more on him, this time at the hem of his pants, pulling them down. He whimpered and tried to move away, but found that, with the way his feet were now placed on the floor, arms immobile, torso bent over the table like that, and a larger body pinning him to the table, moving in any way was out of question. He had no choice but to stay there, aroused beyond reason and hurting, and wait as his father undressed him.

The air was cold against his bare skin as the pants were finally pulled off. He was sobbing now, knowing that he was about to get fucked bent over a table and all he wanted to as for, was for his rapist to give a few hard strokes to his neglected, overly-heated flesh.

He could already hear the familiar sound of a zip getting undone. The sound he heard too many times already… he was whimpering and praying for this to be a horrible nightmare and that he would wake up to wipe his face dry from the tears and go back to sleep again. Then the sound was followed by another familiar sound. A small pop…silence for a very small while, then a sucking link noise and another pop. Then the horrifying rhapsody of the series of slurping sounds mingling with a throaty moan of pleasure. This was a nightmare…he was living in a nightmare for sure. How long was he going to stay here?

But the feel of something that was soft, yet hard at the same time…something that was warm and so fucking scary…that feeling was too real for it to be one of the most vivid nightmares he had. It was real. This was real…this was his life and this was what it will be till he died, unless he took action.

He whimpered in horror, trying to get away once more. But it was futile. He felt a strong body bending along with his own, trapping his hands uncomfortably against his back. Then that warm breath was back beside his ear again, whispering, "I won't let you cum until you beg for it, Yami…"

He closed his eyes tightly, letting more tears escape them and he whispered in despair, "Don't…" at exactly the same moment the slick, thick member pressing against his entrance. He groaned in pain, the penetration painful for him without preparation, but more pleasurable for the monster above him, if the moan of pleasure he let out was anything to go by.

It was something familiar. He went through this before. But he was never this aroused. He was never maddened by the thought of reaching his own climax as he was now. Especially as his father changed his angle very slightly, hitting his prostate head-on.

Yami cried out involuntarily, hating himself for it. He whimpered and struggled harder to release himself from his bondage, but he couldn't. His eyes were watering more than ever but he didn't know if this was a side-effect of the Cilias, or if it was because he was crying. He didn't know.

The direct, continuous battering of his prostate was torture when he was so aroused. He knew it was possible to reach orgasm from penetration only, but just when the thought crossed his mind, a hand reached down and firmly grasped the base of his length, making him gasp and lower his head when any hint of orgasm in sight was killed.

"Beg, Yami…beg me…" his father told him, thrusting into him with sure, powerful strokes.

"No…no, no, no, no…" Yami chanted under his breath, forehead resting against the surface of the table, whose tablecloth now had slight droplets of his sweat wetting them. He was not going to do that. He was not going to humiliate himself anymore than this…

"No?" his father asked with a breathless little laugh. He then increased the tempo of his pushed into Yami's body, resuming with a breathless voice, "Maybe not now…"

Yami stayed completely still after that, like a lifeless ragdoll, not resisting being moved around the entire place and not resisting when his father took out a rubber band from his pocket to place it around his rock-hard erection.

His father seemed to have so much stamina, it was unbelievable… he went on and on, taking Yami in different positions and in different areas of the house. A little bit after 10:30PM, Yami's legs couldn't hold him up any longer and he fell to the floor on his knees. Samuel laughed and grabbed his hair, raising his head to place his member against Yami's lips, telling him that since he wanted to swallow his cum like a good little whore, why didn't he say so from the beginning?

At a little after 12:15AM, the man finally stopped, slipping out of Yami's body with a slick, slurping sound, leaving blood and semen to slide down the back of Yami's thighs uncomfortably.

Yami's body crumpled down to the floor, falling off the arm of the armchair in the living room. His eyes were slipping closed, the darkness of unawareness crawling all over his being. He was so tired. He was so tired and sticky and uncomfortable…and still so fucking hard!

Another touch to his shoulder made him whimper and curl up into fetal position. He whimpered and tried to crawl away, but then he heard his father saying gently while stroking his neck, "Good boy…Yami was a good boy today…"

Unconsciously, he moved into the touch, not knowing why he needed it so much even though this was the same person who showed him the different colors of hell on earth.

"Do you want me to remove this, Yami?" his father asked, stroking his hardness which was now so damn agonizingly painful, it was driving him mad. Yami whimpered and nodded pathetically, so Samuel told him with a small pat on the hair, "Then say please…"

Yami closed his eyes in torment and hiccupped while trying to draw in breath properly and he bit his lip hard, tasting blood on his tongue after a little bit. And then he did it…

"P…Please…"

After the restricting rubber band was removed and after two powerful strokes to his long-neglected length, everything ceased to have meaning and after a few bursts of blinding light behind Yami's eyelids, unconsciousness thankfully came and claimed him…

* * *

Next day in school, Seto was relieved to see Yami walk in a few minutes before the bell rang. He gave him a curt nod, which Yami responded to with a terrified, shameful look and downcast eyes. Seto raised an eyebrow, but did not approach Yami about it, taking his flushed appearance for being on a drug-high.

Yami had avoided him throughout the entire day, but finally, when it was time for the Chemistry lesson right at the end of the day, Seto heard Yami's now-familiar voice calling him. He turned, to see Yami standing uncertainly a few feet away, holding a tissue paper to his nose and sniffling slightly. His face was slightly flushed at the cheeks and his eyes were watering, so Seto immediately asked, pulling Yami in the janitor's closet nearby, "What's wrong? Why're you crying?"

Yami gave him a smile at that. It was pained…anguished, but it was a smile. "Oh I'm not…really…"

Seto stared suspiciously at him. "Are you high?"

Yami shook his head, "No, not that either. I got an overdose of Cilias slipped into about…five glasses of my wine yesterday…"

Seto's eyes widened impossibly in shock, his mouth falling open.

"'S okay…'m okay…" Yami reassured him, raising the tissue to his small nose once more. "Don't look so scared. Nothing happened…"

Seto knew he was lying. Seto saw right through the façade of indifference. He saw the pain and he saw the anguish and he saw the humiliation. Whatever happened yesterday…it must have been horror. No. That was also a very mild word to use…

"Anyway, that aside…I…err…I thought about what you…what you told me and I'd like…" Yami stuttered then trailed off after a bit.

Seto took the hint immediately. "Do you want to give it a shot Yami? If nothing, it would give you a break from him for a while…"

Yami's face seemed to brighten at that idea and not the one of getting rid of his dependence on drugs.

"Please…" he nodded… "I need help with this."

Seto smiled. Yes…that is what he wanted to do. Help Yami…

* * *

A/N: Thank you so much for reading. ^_^

Special thanks to **AncientPurebloodPrincessLolita** for being downright amazing 3 Love you my dear.

Hathor…


	9. Chapter 9

**Warnings:** drug use and heavy implications of non-consensual sex between a minor and an adult, as well as adult themes, so please heed the warnings…

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Nine**

"You want…what…?"

Seto cleared his throat once softly and straightened in his seat a little, dropping off a glance at Mr. Anderson, who was sitting beside him, then Téa, who was seated on the couch to the right side of the desk, in front of Mr. James Paul, Domino High's Principal.

It was a delicate situation. A very delicate one, really. He had gone to the Physical Education teacher for help and support, because three voices –since he had gone to Téa to tell her that he was going to carry out that little plan of his and that he needed her to get Yami an excuse to get out of his house for a while— were better than one, when dealing with the Principal regarding such a situation.

Briefly and with urgent tones, he asked Mr. Anderson to give him at least half an hour of his time to discuss something important. Obviously, by the serious look on Seto's face, and the way Téa was glancing around her to check and see if anyone was listening in on them or not with her arms crossed in front of her, the older man realized that whatever he was about to hear from Domino High's golden students, would be very crucial.

Seto's first attempt at convincing the PE teacher to join him and Téa in persuading Mr. Paul to grant them the request he was asking for, was to tell Mr. Anderson, "Yami needs our help…we need to get him a school-approved alibi of some sort, for no less than two or three weeks."

Seto and Téa found Mr. Anderson staring at them for a long while, studying their features in a skeptical way that made the great, rarely-unnerved Seto Kaiba, fidget in discomfort under its scrutiny and Téa start biting on her nails in anxiety. Finally, the tenseness ended when Mr. Anderson got up from where he was half-seated on the edge of his desk and turned around, so he could sit behind it, saying, "I won't be moving a finger to help the boy unless I know what the hell is going on."

At that, Seto and Téa both realized that anything but the truth just wouldn't be enough. And so, they started telling Mr. Anderson a version of what they knew, which was as short and as private as they could make it. They briefly described Yami's condition and what he went through at home and what exactly the doctor had told them a few days ago that there was hope the kid might be helped out of this ugly situation with the drugs.

Needless to say, Téa was, at first, appalled at the idea of Seto telling two people other than herself and Seto and Yami, what was going on. But Seto assured her that he would never have told the older man all those things about Yami and went to him for help, except if he didn't think the man was more than capable of keeping a secret and helping Yami out. And eventually, seeing Mr. Anderson's reaction to what they told him, she had to admit that Seto's faith in the older man was in its correct place.

Good old Mr. Anderson with his kind, old-fashioned heart… he had needed about…ten to fifteen minutes to correctly grasp the basic concept of what exactly Yami was going through. The idea that a father would do that to his own son, it just did not make sense in his mind. He couldn't understand it, kept asking 'what', 'how', 'what do you mean by that' and other questions, until he finally understood. And when he did, they were both sure the man wanted to kill someone.

Of course, it took another ten to fifteen minutes to convince Mr. Anderson that killing someone who, to the public eye, was innocent, wouldn't help Yami at all. Once Seto got that task achieved, Mr. Anderson staring down at the basketball court through the windows in his office, hands crossed behind his back. Seto sat in his chair, watching him in silence and glancing at Téa who had mixed emotions flickering in her eyes, ranging from hope to doubt to thoughtfulness. When he turned around once again, about forty-five minutes after Seto and Téa came to him at the start of the lunch break, he said, "Let's go speak to Mr. Paul then…"

And now, about half an hour since they walked into the Principal's office, Seto was adjusting the way he sat and leaned a bit closer to the desk, repeating his earlier request, "I think it would be most helpful, if you sign a letter addressed to Mr. Samuel Motou telling him that Yami was chosen to go to another country, as a part of our school's foreign exchange program…"

"And we can't just call the police and inform them of all of this…because…?" Mr. Paul looked at both of them incredulously, sitting back in his leather chair and crossing his fingers together.

At first, the old man just couldn't picture the truth behind what Seto was telling him about Yami. It was perhaps shock that something like this could be happening right under everyone's noses without anyone noticing it earlier…or perhaps it was denial, because admitting that something like that could possibly be happening, meant a huge mountain of guilt would be dumped on the man's shoulders that perhaps…just perhaps his experience with children that gave him his current position, wasn't so great.

However, seeing that one of his most reliable teachers and his most trusted students, standing together to affirm the same thing…he found no other option than to believe them. But, Seto's request didn't seem too logical to him.

Seto understood, really. He too, when Téa first told him about Yami, he adamantly believed that going to the police about this was the best option. He was sure that once it was brought to the authorities, it would all be over and Yami would be free from all this. But, he came to a certain realization after giving it some thought.

At that moment, with Mr. Paul's question, Téa was the one to speak in reply, for the first time ever since she got inside the office. She gave a little laugh and said, "With all due respect, Mr. Paul…let me ask you. Before we told you about this…if Yami had walked into your office, saying that his father did all those things to him…would you have listened? Or would you have sent him off, thinking that he was blabbering under the effects of a heroin-induced high?"

There was silence for a few moments, before Mr. Paul stammered out, "I am sure I would have looked into…"

Téa interrupted him, "Let's not fool ourselves, Mr. Paul. Domino High has a little over three and a half thousand students on its rolls. One in every ten kids is a drug addict, or on their way to becoming one. And two in every five attempted to harm themselves at some point or the other. And three in every four disobey rules and regulations… and all of us in this school has spoken to a teacher disrespectfully at one time or the other, myself and Seto included…so that is a hundred percent," she threw the numbers at him, bringing forth her knowledge of the student community and its secrets. She then got up and paced the office for a while, before adding, "You or the other staff members don't have time to deal with only one out of three thousand teenagers… the so-called councilors, as much as they deserve a lot of respect for what they do, they sometimes allow too much to slide under their danger radars."

"I am afraid I cannot see how those…numbers and accusations, would erase the fact that informing the authorities about this, is necessary."

Téa placed her hands on the desk, and shook her head in sorrow, "The police are not going to believe a juvenile drug addict…"

"Well then, Miss. Gardner…" Mr. Paul started, leaning forward with his fingers crossed under his chin, before completing his question, "What makes you think Yami is a special case…? You dropped in so many percentages of tragedies in Domino High. What makes you think Mr. Motou should be the one chosen to be helped?"

Once again, Téa laughed bitterly, "I cannot believe you are asking that… I will explain why, but isn't it amusing that you have the perfect opportunity to help out someone like Yami, but instead you're asking why you should be doing it? Amusing…really," she shook her head, as though unable to wrap her mind around the idea.

Mr. Paul's ears reddened, "That's not what I m…"

Once again, she interrupted him, "That was how I interpreted the words, Mr. Paul…regardless whether you meant it in this way or that. Yes, I owe you an answer to that question you asked and that is what you will be getting."

Seto sat in silence after exchanging a stealthy glance with Mr. Anderson. At times like these, when Téa showed what she was really made of, all Seto wanted to do was stare in admiration at her. She was a tough girl. Not too many people could stand up to their hard-headed Principal like that.

"Even if Yami is only one person out of the large numbers I gave you, you can't deny that his condition is way worse than people like him," she was saying, starting to pace once again. She raised her hand, counting off on her fingers, "He's a drug addict…but he was not the one who chose to be a drug addict. His father made him that way. Now that, you will not find it amongst any other druggie in Domino High. Each and every one of them got hooked because they wanted to sample and try…Yami did not sign up for this…"

Before she could resume, Mr. Anderson interfered with his side of the story as well, "Besides… you find anyone who's doing what Yami does to…his arms…they usually do it and walk around with half-sleeves or with a stain of blood on their clothes, as though they are asking people to notice that there is an injury there…" he then shook his head, adding, "Yami cuts and keeps it to himself. I did not know anything of it, until Seto told me about it… he is not doing this to ask for attention, even if the act of self-harm is a cry-out for help in itself…"

This was taking too long…it sounded like some sort of session with a psychiatrist. To be honest, Seto thought that it was completely ridiculous that all of this was taking _too fucking long!_

"Mr. Paul…look," he interrupted Mr. Anderson and Téa, who had wanted to say something as well. All talk paused and the three looked at him. He stared directly into the Principal's eyes, letting his determination to get this done, seep into his own blue ones. "Yami values his pride above everything else…" he stated with finality. "Going to the police and reporting this, only to have them rejecting his claims to have been abused because he is a drug addict, would mean that he has no pride left on him at all, according to him." He kept staring into the older man's eyes, pausing a little, trying to gather his angry thoughts so he could end this meeting that seemed to be getting longer for no obvious reasons. "Please…just write the letter and call his father to confirm it…just two or three weeks. That's all he needs. After that, he will go to the police by himself and report it."

Mr. Paul stared at him for a long while. Seto determinedly kept the eye contact. This had to be done. A few moments later, the older man's gaze left his, so he could look at Mr. Anderson and Téa one after the other.

He then sighed, "Alright…I'll see what I can do."

* * *

It wasn't a familiar feeling to wake up to and it unnerved him. Usually, when he woke up, he would be in his bed, _alone_, lying curled up into a very tight, little mass in the top, left corner, so that whoever searched for him, didn't find him immediately in the center of the bed. There would be the familiar feeling of soreness and the disgust that was triggered by feeling sticky and sweaty and covered in…grimy stuff.

Today was…different.

He wasn't curled up in the corner. He guessed that that was because he wasn't alone in his bed…

Startled, he opened his eyes, wanting to find out if the nightmare he was thinking of, was real or not.

Sure enough, he felt bile rising to his throat when he found a frighteningly familiar body sprawled on top of his, like a second skin. He swallowed and tried moving, but found out there was no way to get that done, with how those strong, long legs were pinning down his own lower limbs and with the heavy, muscular torso flush with his own. He panicked when he felt a repulsive hardness pressing into his hipbone, in an obscene way that made him want to hurl.

He wanted to move away. He wanted to curl up in the furthest corner of the bed. But he couldn't move. He couldn't move and when he tried, he was horrified to feel the heavier, stronger body above his move as well, its owner waking up from his sleep.

Long eyelashes parted and soon, he found a pair of crimson eyes so much alike his own, staring at him.

There was a period of prolonged silence for a while, "Good morning, Yami…"

"What are you doing here?" Yami tensely asked, trying to wiggle free. It didn't work. His father stayed slumped on top of him, preventing the slightest of movements. He was unnerved to see those crimson eyes staring at him in amusement that sent shivers rushing heavily down his spine. He swallowed, shifted uncomfortably as much as he could, trying to get away from the unmistakable hardness that prodded his body. "Get off me…I need to use the bathroom," he tried that, hoping it works.

It didn't.

He froze once more when he found a pair of strong hands grasping his wrists, sliding his own hands up above his head. He swallowed nervously, trying not to show how truly anxious he was at being restrained. It took every bit of his willpower not to start whimpering in distress when he felt that disgusting, hard flesh gliding along the skin on his bare thighs, along his disinterested privates and up to his waist. He stared into the amused, lust-hazy crimson eyes staring down at him, praying that a repeat of what happened before he went to sleep –passed out—wouldn't happen again…

"I got a call from your school's Principal yesterday…and a letter…" Samuel conversationally said. One of his hands grabbed both Yami's wrists and kept them mobile above his head, while the other slid downwards slowly, tracing a path from Yami's hair, to his cheek, then to his lips, before moving further down to his neck. The touch was frightening and he felt relieved for the distraction when Samuel resumed, "He said he wanted you to be a part of some…foreign exchange program…"

Yami shifted with unease. Seto told him yesterday, before the weekend started that Mr. James Paul agreed to sign a letter to his father, requesting he joined the exchange program. He was painfully aware that the Principal was now informed of his…situation, because Seto added that the man was going to even call his father to confirm the request. The only way to convince Mr. Paul to do that, was to tell him why…

"Umm…yes, I was…I was told by the secretary…that they chose me…" he stuttered, hoping that the plan worked and that he was allowed escape for that long while…he _so_ needed it.

"Do you want to go…?" Samuel asked, gently, speaking against Yami's neck, making him feel the uncomfortable, unnerving way with which the hot, moist breath hit the soft, cold skin.

Yami's fingers clenched. "If I say yes…you are going to tell me that you are not going to allow me to go…" he quietly remarked, closing his eyes to try and shut out the different sensations assaulting his mind. "It doesn't matter if I want to go or not…you're going to do what you want…"

There was a moment of silence for a while, before he whimpered and shifted uncomfortably when he felt a pair of hot, slightly-moist lips caressing the delicate line of his jaw, and dropping a trail of small kisses all along its length. Out of reflex, his eyes clenched together tighter and his fingers gripped hard at the pillowcase, while he leaned his head away, trying to escape the gentle, confusing touch.

"No, Yami…I won't do that…" he heard his father mumble. He opened his eyes slowly and fixed them on the mane of soft, dark tresses of his father's hair that spread out all over his chest and shoulders, tickling his skin slightly. He stared in silent shock, wondering if he could be foolish enough to believe him this time. At that moment, the lusty crimson eyes that his own mimicked so perfectly, stared up at him. There was the gentlest of smiles on that face he came to associate with every nightmare he had and will have. "I mean it…do you want to go? If you do, I'll let you."

Yami stared at him suspiciously. "I…want…" he said, uncertainly.

"Want what?" Samuel asked, mouth still lavishing so much attention and unfamiliar, bewildering gentleness.

Yami squirmed under the tender touch. "I want to go…" he said, praying that just this once…just this once whoever it was he was praying to, would listen and make his father let him go… he knew it was in vain. It wasn't something that happened often, for his prayers to be answered. Just…it didn't work this way. The opposite of what he was hoping, always, always happened. He expected that to be the case this time as well…

To his surprise, Samuel 'mhmm-ed' against his skin, suckling slightly on it until he left a prominent mark on it, before drawing back, licking the skin tenderly and saying, "Alright…"

He stiffened. "Really?" he asked suspiciously.

He could feel that hated mouth forming a smile, the thick hair on Samuel's face from his goatee tickling his face. His heart raced with disappointment; was this where he was told that no, not 'really', as he asked. He was about to be told now that he can forget about it. He was about to be told that Seto's great plan wasn't so great after all…

Yet…this time too, it seemed that luck was on his side.

Samuel nodded, "Yes, Yami…really." Yami couldn't believe what he was hearing. _Oh God, let this be true,_ he pleaded desperately. His heart stopped for a moment, though, when his father added, "But… on one condition…"

"Umm…what…what is it?" he asked nervously.

His father straightened, pulling away from him and letting his wrists go. Yami nervously pulled the covers closer, trying to pull back, away from him now that he was free. However, he stopped trying to when Samuel laughed and tugged on the covers, leaving him naked and unprotected from the intense crimson gaze. He lay still, not wanting to push his luck and ruin this perfect chance.

"I just want you to remember…I have a lot of friends who can set up a little…accident…for that girl. Téa…"

Yami's heart felt as though it rose up to his throat and forgot to return to its place. His eyes widened in shock and horror, and he stared at his father in confusion.

"So I am just telling you…any word out of those pretty lips of yours, which might put me in trouble, Yami…I'll simply contact one of my friends and your friend's body will never be found again," he was told, while a slender hand caressed the side of his face caringly.

Numbly, he nodded. He could do that, simple instruction, because he wasn't going to tell any authority figure about the hell his life was, while he spent those few weeks away. It wasn't difficult to follow that instruction, but he was shaken by the threat…Téa wasn't safe…if something goes wrong, then she would suffer and it would be his fault.

He prayed once more that he wouldn't screw up… and he hoped that those prayers would be answered this time as well…

"And something else," he heard Samuel saying and once again, his heart rose to his throat. He hummed, unsure if his voice wanted to work or not. "Stop taking part in school activities…I will miss you when you're away…"

The words were accompanied by a gentle squeeze to his neck, while his father crawled on top of him once again, a predatory look on his handsome face. Yami wished it wasn't the weekend.

* * *

It was almost too good to be true…

Things went so smoothly, Yami couldn't believe it. He had to be dreaming. His father allowed him to leave for the made-up trip to Hungary, as Mr. Paul told him over the phone and on the letter. Of course, there was a terrible part of it, that the week remaining until the day he left was like a nightmare since his father thought it was only fair to give him a month's worth of torment before he left. 'Remember me for the next month,' were the words he said.

But otherwise, he was allowed to pack his clothes and personal belongings in peace. It was so confusing, the sudden act of gentleness and understanding from his father's side… he didn't know the reason behind it. He found the man even going as far as asking Mr. Paul for a leave for two days before the so-called time of the flight.

Aside from having to be his father's personal whore for extra time…it all went too well.

But knowing that all of this suffering was for…the greater good, as they said, did not stop him from driving himself into that state only a few steps before a mental breakdown. Passively accepting the 'fatherly' pat on the head as stood in front of the airport terminal which, according to the plan, he wouldn't even enter for more than three minutes, he quietly nodded to Samuel's reminder of staying good and not getting into trouble.

He turned around and walked into the airport. He stood beside one of the windows, waiting for Seto to come take him away from all of this.

His mind drifted elsewhere and he started thinking; what would it be like? To walk over to where they booked the tickets and booked himself a flight to Egypt…or France… and just…flee this place and this life. Or no…a better thought would be, waiting for Seto to arrive, taking his hand and walking over to book two one-way tickets to any place in the world…and spend their whole life away from this place. What would happen if he did that? Will it be as bright and lovely as it sounded in his mind? Would Seto ever agree?

He clenched his eyes shut and leaned heavily on the glass. No…what was he thinking? It would never work. And…so many people might get hurt in the process, Téa and his classmates on top of that list. And besides…why would Seto Kaiba want to run away with a drug addict like him? Damaged goods… stupid way of thinking, really.

His gloomy thoughts were interrupted by a calm, deep voice that sounded too cheerful for his morbid mind, "Are you ready to go?"

He opened his eyes and glanced sideways where the sound came. He would have liked to offer a smile, but he couldn't and settled onto giving a curt nod to Seto, who stood beside him, wearing a pair of jeans and a light-blue, button-up shirt. "Though we have to wait for a little bit, in case he…is still around…" he mumbled, though, ready to lean against the glass again.

"That won't be necessary, my security team told me they watched him leave," Seto said with a reassuring grin.

Yami stared at him in silence for a few moments. Was this person…real? He asked himself. He had been asking himself that ever since he thought he was going to hit rock bottom with how fast he was falling, only to crash into this perfect, perfect human. He thought…that after what Seto heard over the phone, he thought that he was going to turn away from it all and refuse to meddle. He thought no one cared. He thought that Seto Kaiba…wouldn't care. But that day when he held him in his arms, asking him for his trust…that day when Yami thought that this was where finally, he would die and not bother anyone anymore… that day, Yami realized that perhaps the world wasn't such a bad place after all. Perhaps someone cared. Perhaps Seto Kaiba cared…

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

The concern in the question made him want to cry. Everything was wrong, and no he was not okay. But if he could just…if he got just one chance…just one chance to change everything… then it would all be alright and yes, he would be okay.

He didn't say that, of course. He just nodded numbly and mumbled, "I'm fine…"

He could tell Seto didn't buy his answer. But even if he didn't, he said nothing about it, turning elsewhere to point elegantly with a finger for a middle-aged man dressed in a black suit, who came closer, taking his suitcase and starting to pull it away. Yami watched him go in silence, until Seto told him it was time to go.

He didn't move.

Seto shook his head and his hand went for Yami's grabbing his wrist and starting to pull him along as he walked away.

As though walking in a dream, Yami followed a step or two behind the taller teenager. Was this real? Was this really happening? Was he free for an entire month from the horror his life was with his father? Was he going to spend that much time with the person he wished would notice him just once? Was Seto really holding his hand right now? Wouldn't it be amazing, if they could continue to hold each other's hands like that?

The thought made him smile…really smile in happiness.

"What's making you smile?" Seto asked as he sat back against the leather seat of the limo.

Yami blinked and stared up at him, only now realizing that he was still grinning. He was struck speechless for a moment or two by how blue Seto's eyes were from this close position, as they sat beside one another in the car, before he shook his head, let out a tiny laugh, remarking as he stared out of the dark-tinted window, "Seto Kaiba was holding my hand…I wonder how many girls would have wished to be in my place…"

Of course, he missed the very brief moment when Seto's face reddened, and only heard the brunet say, "Trust me… not a lot."

"That…I doubt," Yami countered, burrowing into the corner of the seat and leaning his head against the cool glass. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax.

* * *

The moment they reached the Kaiba Mansion…Yami found himself with an armful of a short, scrawny figure with raven hair and excited gray eyes. The moment Seto started admonishing his brother for being so abrupt, Yami found no problem at all glaring at him and telling him that he shouldn't meddle with what concerned himself and Mokuba.

Wanting to laugh at the surprised, slightly offended look in Seto's blue eyes, Yami followed Mokuba to the living room where they sat talking and playing games. Seto grudgingly sat with them, watching them in silence, and even though he kept the same affronted expression, his mind drifted over to several things that needed his thoughts.

His personal physician, inevitably the professional that will supervise their DIY detox plan for Yami, was going to arrive at a little after four in the evening, which was an hour or two from now. Seto knew the next couple of days will be…peaceful. The peace before the storm as they said. He had a basic idea of what exactly was going to happen, but…it didn't make it any less unpleasant.

They had a quick snack, Seto fretting ceaselessly about how small Yami's meal was, Yami impatiently telling him to back off or else and Mokuba laughing at both of them as they sat bickering back and forth.

Four o'clock arrived too soon, in Seto's opinion and, from the way he started in panic and glanced at the clock, Yami thought so too.

"Mokuba, could you please go to your room and stay there until I call you down here?" Seto said calmly, getting up, his tone not allowing his brother to do anything but nod in obedience and get up, going upstairs.

He opened the door, greeted the old man who seemed too cheerful compared to what he was coming to say, and led the way to the living room, where Yami sat on the couch, hands fiddling with one another on his lap in anxiety Seto could have seen a mile away. Luckily, the doctor did not give Yami a hard time, proceeding to ask him first about his healing ribs and the small stab wound on his shoulder.

Yami answered him in quiet tones, not looking up to meet his eyes. Seto watched him intently, interested beyond reason by what was going on, by how much Yami had been so good at hiding what he really was behind that mask of bravado and toughness he wore in school. It both amused and horrified him how much of a complete opposite this Yami was, from the Yami he knew in school. Like mirror images…so similar, yet so different at the same time.

His thoughts came to a halt when he heard the doctor speaking to him, "Mr. Kaiba, I'd like you to listen carefully to the conversation, because I believe you will be in charge of Yami for the next few weeks."

Seto nodded, while Yami remarked snappily, "I am not a child to be _taken care of_."

"I am aware of that, Yami…proof of that would be the fact you managed to stay alive to this point," the doctor affirmed with a nod. At his words, Yami looked up finally to meet the wrinkled, age-wizened eyes, seeing nothing but honesty in them. Seto noticed the pale cheeks coloring slightly and the small form curling up tighter on itself at the praise and admiration that he understood from the remark. The older man did not press things further, adding, "But the next while is not going to be easy. You will need help and your first step towards making the recovery you wanted, would be admitting that you need help and accepting this help…"

Seto kept silent, watching Yami who nodded slowly.

"Once you've got that done…you need to understand that this will not be easy…heroin is the worst thing anyone can create a dependence on. Withdrawal is…unpleasant…"

At that, Yami interrupted, "I know. Been there before."

The doctor looked at Seto for an explanation, but Seto just gestured for him to carry on, so he nodded curtly, resuming, "You need to be patient and you'll need to stay positive, Yami. You will find it difficult, I am hundred percent sure about that, but you have to do it. It's all about the mental challenge, not the physical challenge. But I am sure you are strong enough to do it."

Yami, in a clipped, abrupt way, nodded.

"You'll need to take the medicines I have listed down here," the old man took a small piece of paper, and gave it to Seto, motioning for him to pass it over to Yami. "They will help with a lot of the physical pains and symptoms of withdrawal."

Anti-nausea and anti-diarrhea medicines, temperature reducers, painkillers, sleep aids… Seto wanted to shift nervously as he gave Yami the piece of paper. This really, really sounded like it was going to be one of the most difficult challenges he ever faced; he did not want to think of what Yami must be feeling…will be feeling.

"It is very important to stay hydrated, Yami," the doctor resumed speaking, staring intently at Yami. "You have to drink even more than the required two liters of water a day. Energy drinks, carbonated drinks…sugary juices of all kinds…you have to drink as much as you can. If possible, I'd like you to have something to drink most of the time you're awake, if not all the time. You may not even touch food, although there will be times when you will have to eat, but you _have_ to stay hydrated. Your body will be losing so much water while trying to deal with something as traumatic as getting rid of an addiction to heroin."

"'Kay," Yami approved silently, as though promising to do that.

Seto determinedly pushed away the random thought that remarked about how cute Yami looked…

"Mr. Kaiba, I trust you are more than capable of handling this. Yami is…human…" he paused, as though unsure if that comment was true or not because it wasn't within a human's ability to endure so much and survive, from his experience. He then pursed his lips a bit before resuming, "There will be moments of weakness and there will be temper tantrums and there will be a lot times when you yourself will feel like reaching for the syringe and giving him what he needs."

Seto did not have a doubt in his mind about that. Yami's evident pain… made him cringe and do anything in his power to make it go away.

"Right now, Yami, your daily intake of the heroin is…let's say two shots?"

"Three, maybe four, on a bad day," Yami whispered.

"Alright…I trust your time here won't be bad at all," a pointed look at Seto. Seto nodded, so the doctor resumed, "For the first three days, you have to reduce your daily dose to one shot per day. You _have_ to do it. I believe you have only six, full syringes with you, right?"

Yami nodded.

"After those three days, start making it only one syringe every two days, until you run out…" the doctor carefully and slowly instructed, addressing both of them. Seto listened carefully, trying to take it all in. "Later on, when the real pains of withdrawal attack you, it won't be as bad as stopping all of a sudden."

Silence hung over them for a minute or two. Yami's face was void of any emotions, but Seto knew he was still determined to go through with this.

Finally, the doctor broke the silence, "I will be coming over here everyday at eight in the evening to see how things are progressing. I would also like to have a long talk with you Yami about some of your physical injuries and I would like to give you a few words of advice regarding your situation with your…_guardian_." The word came out with so much spite, it made Seto agree fervently in his head that the monster who was responsible for all of this couldn't be called anything that remotely described a father-figure.

Once again, unable to speak, apparently, Yami nodded his agreement…surrender to the situation…Seto didn't know what it was.

He didn't try to find out, as the man got up, addressing him when he got up as well to see the man to the front door, "Seto, make sure the kid isn't alone and make sure to remind him how much he would be better off without the drugs…"

"I'll try my best," Seto promised.

The man stopped and lowered his voice, "After he is clean…I will want him to see a psychiatrist. He will need help…more help than to just get rid of an addiction."

"After he is clean, _I_ will be stepping in and pulling a lot of strings for him…" Seto vowed. After the couple of weeks Yami spent with him, he was determined that things were going to change.

The old man stared at him for a moment, before nodding and stepping out of the door while saying, "Remember to keep him hydrated and try to make him eat whenever possible. And…" the doctor paused for a second, before turning around to say, "Keep Mokuba involved… the child knows how to make others feel better…"

Seto's face broke into a smile. "Alright. Mokuba would be glad to help out."

The man smiled and nodded. Seto made sure to see that he was out of the Manor grounds safely, before turning around to walk into the house again, mind going all over the things he needed Roland to supply them with. He needed to make a list…

Yami was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows that he stood in front of the first time he came to the Mansion, to give Seto his biology notebook. He had one hand leaned against the glass, the delicate fingers barely brushing the smooth surface. His eyes were blank and expressionless as he stared at the dark garden outside.

Seto stepped beside him silently, and stood staring outside as well.

They stayed like that for a while, until Yami finally spoke.

His voice was soft, barely audible and it broke with the undecipherable emotions that made it sound terse, abrupt. "Th…Thank you…so much."

Seto glanced at him with the barest hint of a smile. "It's the least I could do, Yami…" and after a few moments, he hesitantly reached sideways, taking hold of Yami's hand by the fingers, giving them a tiny squeeze of reassurance. "For now…"

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading, everyone ^_^ Sorry for the delay, school is REALLY giving me hell.

Hathor…


	10. Chapter 10

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Ten**

Yami lay on his back in his bed in the guest room Seto told him it was entirely his for the next while. The same bedroom he woke up in its bed a week or something ago, when Seto brought him back to the Mansion. He told Seto last night that he would be comfortable here. But that wasn't so true at the moment. His arms were by his side, fists clenched beside his thighs, pulled taut with tension. His entire body was rigid, not moving an inch and nowhere within a mile of where sleep was.

It was the end of the first day of the three where he took only one of his shots, instead of two. He was very slightly feverish and queasy, his stomach upset beyond reason, and he felt somewhat lethargic and weak. It wasn't unbearable…but it kept him from sleep. That, as well as the anticipation of someone walking into his room to slip into his bed, undressing him to start doing the unspeakable to him…

He bit his lip and clenched his eyes shut very tightly. And again…his father, although a long distance away from him…his mere memory managed to bring him down to his knees in weakness. The memory of all the times he would beg and say please, where every time he was ignored… that made him shiver and made a sharp prick appear at the corners of his eyes. His mind was recalling every single time he felt insecure because of his father…

Too many times…too many times he felt that way.

Why was he recalling this now? Why was he making things worse for himself? Why couldn't he just close his eyes and sleep the pain away? Why did he expect to find that…monster to walk into this safe room right now? The monster who, with how real he was, chased away any other monsters a normal child's imagination might have come up with…

He blinked. A hot trail of the first teardrop made its way down the side of his head, and into his hair.

He sat up, not standing the extra discomfort. He found his chest tightening unbearably and he buried his face in his hands, letting himself cry openly. He couldn't bear this anymore. He needed to pass out… he just wanted to pass out right now in any way possible. Drugs… blood loss or even the pain of getting himself split in half with an unholy act that he never agreed to…

Yes, yes, it was…shameful. He was strong, he believed so. But not all the way through. In some subconscious part of him, he knew that his father's nightly visits came as salvation sometimes…when nothing else worked to keep nightmares and vivid hallucinations at bay. When the strongest and most lethal of drugs failed to bring him down… all it took was to feel the pain and humiliation of having that monster stare down at him with contempt.

Unfortunately, right now, he couldn't take an extra shot of his drugs and he vowed not to start cutting so soon, nor would he accept a sleeping pill so soon either, and, even if he didn't believe it in his mind, his father wasn't here…

He stared up at the ceiling, wondering if he would ever be free from this. A fervent, imploring sigh escaped him and he closed his eyes for a second, listening to the sound of silence…

A few moments later, the deafening hush was interrupted by the sound of soft, careful footsteps, just outside his room. Yami opened his eyes and stared at the door, hearing the faint, barely audible sound of those footsteps, halt, just beside his room. The seconds ticked by like hours, Yami staring at the door, not knowing if he should start panicking, or if he should get hopeful.

He couldn't reach a decision before a very small knock was heard at the door. His heart thudded sluggishly behind his ribcage as his body, without thinking, reacted on instincts and he mumbled out loud, "Come in…"

There was a pause, in which he felt like yelling, 'what are you doing?' at himself at the top of his lungs. He didn't even get the chance to stop crying…

The door opened softly and he saw the now familiar fair face and brown hair and concerned, gentle blue eyes. He stared into them for a long while, trying to get an eternal imprint of the way they looked oh so gently into his own, in his mind, so that when it was all over and there was no reason for him to be around this wonderful person…he would have some light he could hang on to.

Seto stood in the doorway, Yami watching his expressions flicker from cautiousness to slight relief, before a concerned, worried expression appeared on the handsome features, obviously when the brunet saw his tears.

Yami forced himself to stop looking at the gorgeous young man who was currently his best definition of some fairytale prince in shining armor. He stared down at the lush, beautiful carpet on the floor, studying the patterns with a detached pattern of thinking that made him feel slightly better.

"Can I come in?" Seto asked him, pulling him away from thoughts of how much time the people who made this carpet must have spent creating this perfectly symmetrical pattern of flowers, leaves and twirls.

He nodded. He stayed so still, didn't even breathe, as he heard Seto entering the room. He waited for him to close the door, but it was obvious the brunet wasn't about to give him the slightest wrong sign. Yami found himself releasing that breath he never realized he was holding. He wanted to cry harder so suddenly, because every second he spent around this one person…the one person in the whole world who would care about him, he proved to him that there really were good people out there. If this had been a bad person in Seto's place…he would have closed the door and taken from him the compensation for all the trouble he went through for him.

The sob he tried to suppress when Seto sat in the window seat so far away from him, turned into a gasp of distress. Seto really was the most decent person he ever thought he was going to meet in his life, no matter how short it was expected to be around his father. So good and so…wonderful. And so completely out of his reach…

"Yami…what's wrong…is the pain to bad?" the question was so genuine. Genuine and the concern behind it and its tone was equally true.

The pain wasn't that bad. No, that wasn't why he was crying. He shook his head, trying to get the worry wiped off that handsome face. He wasn't worth it. That voice at the back of his mind was telling him that. He wasn't worth making someone like Seto so worried.

Silence hung thick…suffocating, over both of them. Yami wanted Seto to leave, but wanted him to stay at the same time. He was confused and sad and the dull, maddening sensations of the early withdrawal symptoms, were not helping him at all.

He flinched and looked up at Seto, who had gotten up and crouched down on his knees before him. He stared uncertainly into those blue eyes, trying to get himself to either tell Seto to get out, or hold his hand and beg him to stay with him for a while longer. Seto once again cut his train of thoughts and placed a hand on his, squeezing it comfortingly. Yami stared down at it in silence, before glancing up at the brunet once more, choking with the overwhelming emotions rushing through him and the sobs of grief that fought his self-control.

"Why are you doing this?" he whispered, clenching his eyes shut after a while of simply staring at Seto.

He expected Seto to ask, 'doing what?', making things more difficult for him. But he didn't. He simply kept offering the comforting pressure on Yami's hand, keeping silent for a while. He then looked up to stare into Yami's eyes and muttered in guilty tones, "I…I was…wrong," Yami stared at him, tears still streaming down his face. "About you," Seto added, still staring into Yami's eyes.

"So now what? You feel obligated to do this after coming to wrong conclusions?" Yami snapped angrily.

"No," Seto said.

"Then _what_!" Yami repeated, desperate for an answer.

"I don't know," Seto told him. The brunet shrugged, "I really don't know why I am doing this. But I don't care because…someone had to do it. Someone had to help you…"

"Téa's doing enough already," Yami muttered, his hand pulling away from Seto's so he could wrap his arms around himself, his body bending slightly, shrinking protectively around itself. Téa was more than enough already. Sometimes, he couldn't look her in the eye because of all the support she was giving him. He didn't know why she cared so much. He knew she loved Yugi so much…so that justified her concern a little. But…he just didn't know…he didn't deserve this much care and concern.

"No!" Seto once again said, but this time, there was a lot more determination and sternness in his tone.

Yami looked up at him.

"No! Téa should never have listened to you when you told her not to tell anyone!" Seto snapped, getting up to pace a few times in front of the bed. "Do you have the slightest idea… Do you have any clue what I used to think of you before I actually bothered to pester Téa enough so she could tell me about you? Do you have any idea what might have happened to you up until yesterday? What if you had overdosed on that poison…? What if he gave you a permanent disfigurement for the rest of your life…? No, Yami, Téa may have been a really good friend but she was wrong to decide to listen to you on this…"

Yami stared at the carpet in silence, recalling the time he once lay convulsing, breathless, his lips and fingernails blue and his skin deathly white, after he injected himself with more than what he usually took. He remembered that time when he was thrown from the top of the stairs to land at a wrong angle to break a few ribs and fracture more than just a few. He remembered the long, sleepless nights of lying in bed wondering if he extracted an STD from one of those high and mighty businessmen his father handed him over to as though he was handing over the strings of one of those stage puppets.

He heard Seto sighing and looked up in time to see him running a hand over his face in exasperation. Immediately, he looked down again, knowing that he was causing Seto so much trouble. He couldn't stop himself from wretchedly listening to the different voices in his head reprimanding him for being such a bother. Wouldn't death be a good way out of this? But no. He was such a puny, little coward. He couldn't go through with it till the end. He closed his eyes tightly against the thoughts and tried to breathe evenly, repeating a mantra of, "don't think, don't think," over and over again in his head.

Within a few moments, his mind was such a terrible jumble of yells between his own thoughts and those terrible, little voices at the back of his head telling him he should get up, right now, to grab one of the kitchen knives, and quickly drag it across his neck to rid everyone of his presence. At one side, he was yelling at himself mentally to stop thinking, to stop thinking that way, to stop listening to those voices…and on the other hand, he was agreeing. He was agreeing that he should get up and go downstairs and slaughter himself to stop annoying so many people. Although the amount of blood would be a bother too, so the mean sounds and thoughts in his mind told him he was so stupid that he couldn't even come up with a good, neat way to die.

He was going to lose his mind, he was sure, when he realized with horror that he was failing to keep those voices at bay. They were always there…always reminding him of the worst of all the bad moment he spent in his short life. But he had always been able to keep them at bay. Until now. Now, he could only hear very loud noises in his head, sounds of different aspects of his fucked up psyche arguing about his level of stupidity. That voice that kept repeating to him the reminder not to think about it…it stopped talking completely and left the other mean sounds continue… louder and louder…

Suddenly, everything stopped and faded into beautiful silence and he realized suddenly that he was on the ground, sobbing and shaking with the tears that blinded and choked him. He didn't know what happened but he was grateful for whatever stopped the raging battle that was going on in his head. He closed his eyes and let out one last sob at how…broken he was right now and felt the tiresome way with which his body was rigid, wearing off, leaving him unbelievably exhausted.

Before he could start contemplating what exactly stopped what he had been going through, he felt warmth surrounding him. He flinched and opened his eyes, to see that Seto was sitting beside him on the ground after depositing a blanket on top of him.

He stared into the concerned, sad blue eyes for a moment, before biting his lower lip hard, then saying in a broken little voice, "I am so sorry…"

To his puzzlement, he found Seto giving him a gentle smile, asking, "What for?"

There were so many reasons…he was so sorry, he knew he was so sorry. He was so sorry. He had done so many things that deserved his sorrow. He couldn't think of anything right now, because of how horrible he was feeling. And because he was so tired. And because he was feeling so tempted to give in to the feeling of safety that Seto's eyes, staring at him that way, gave him…

He couldn't think of anything to say. Seto was giving him that look that told him that he was wrong…the way he was thinking was so wrong, on so many levels…he shouldn't be feeling so miserable about himself right now. He shouldn't be blaming himself so much. That was what Seto's eyes were telling him. That was what he wanted to believe right now.

So, he answered Seto's question with the only reply he could come up with right now.

"For being such a bother," he quietly mumbled, allowing his body to soak in the comfort of the blanket on his shivering body.

He stiffened slightly, though, when he heard Seto saying, "You're not…"

He looked at the brunet who was looking at him straight in the eye, and tentatively repeated, "'M…not?" Seto shook his head in negation. Yami stared at him suspiciously. "You're just saying that…"

"No, Yami…I'm not just saying that. I mean it."

At those words, it seemed as though all the tension and discomfort remaining in his body, ebbed away. His head grew heavy and the last thing he saw before he went to sleep were Seto's lovely blue eyes and his handsome, smiling face.

* * *

It was nowhere near simple…

Seto was aware of that before he even discussed the idea with the doctor; he knew it wouldn't be easy. He knew it would be a painful, heart-wrenching ordeal. He thought he was ready. He thought he would be able to handle it professionally just like he handled any new situation he faced in life. But he just wasn't prepared at all, because… when he first thought of the idea, he only thought of how much it would be a agonizing and unpleasant experience for himself…he never thought of what seeing Yami in this deplorable condition, would do to him.

No, it wasn't easy in any way. And he couldn't handle it with his normal stoicism. No, not at all.

The first three days passed rather…peacefully. The complications of the first night had its effects on him, of course, since he wasn't prepared at all to have Yami half passing out on him during that unexpected…attack he had. He wasn't able to sleep after he picked Yami up off the floor and placed him in bed. Thankfully, the next day was very uneventful and quite tranquil. Yami was even feeling better that he had been the previous day and managed to engage himself with helping Mokuba with his homework. The same pattern persisted for the third day.

The fourth day was…hell.

Yami had been taking his dose of drugs at around nine or nine-thirty in the morning. A few hours after that designated time, on the fourth day when the time for his dose of drugs passed, Yami started becoming more silent. Seto had been ready for that. He smiled encouragingly, giving Yami a reassuring, comforting pat on the shoulder, along with a large glass of orange juice after he had breakfast.

And he looked away from Yami's curled up figure on the couch of his office, resuming his work.

An hour or two later, things started getting bad. The pain was getting worse for Yami, Seto noticed. It wasn't that Yami started showing it. Perhaps that was the reason why things seemed to be getting so much worse than before. Because Yami didn't show anything. Seto had braced himself to hear screams of agony… but he didn't know how to deal with this silent suffering that stabbed directly into the center of his heart.

It started with Yami rushing to the bathroom so suddenly. Seto stayed in his seat for a while, wondering what happened, until he heard the distinct, painful sound of retching coming from the downstairs bathroom. He got up and went there, finding Yami doubled over the toilet seat, throwing up his breakfast and whatever drinks he had been consuming. He moved closer, holding Yami's hair out of the way so he wouldn't mess it up, while his hand gently rubbed one of the tense shoulders. When Yami was done, Seto wet some washrag with cold water and dragged it over Yami's face gently, trying to stop him from shivering so much. He then left Yami to clean up some more and went to grab the smallest bottle of apple juice he could find so that Yami's stomach wouldn't rebel against it when he swallowed down the odd mixture of medications he assembled for him.

Yami silently accepted the drink and medicine, finishing the prior after swallowing down the latter. He looked so pale and tired, Seto felt like bashing the wall with his fist because of how unfair all of this was. But he didn't do that and went back to his seat behind the desk in his office.

Yami, instead of sitting up with his knees drawn up to his chest, laid down on his side, his body still curled up on itself protectively like he had been sitting before the surprise trip to the bathroom. He put his head on one of the cushions and stared outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of Seto's office, shivering in absolute silence as he tried to rein in whatever sounds of pain he wished to make.

Seto had watched him from the corner of his eyes, not giving away the slightest hint he noticed Yami's pain. He knew Yami's pride meant everything to him, because he had nothing left but that. He wasn't about to scathe it in any way fussing over him and making him feel like he wasn't able to handle himself. Seto knew of course that he would never mean it that way and that Yami would remain the strongest person he met till now…but Yami didn't know it.

So, he was stuck watching from the corner, pretending that Yami was alright and that he wasn't suffering very badly, and praying that the sleeping pill he slipped into the mixture of medications, would start kicking in soon.

Thankfully, half an hour later, it did. But in his sleep, Yami did not have the restraint he had when he was aware. Soon, the sound of tiny whimpers and groans of pain escaped Yami's unsuspecting mouth, and tiny spasms started taking the otherwise limp, sleeping form that was twisting and turning uneasily, by surprise. Little pleas and words tumbled out of Yami's lips as nightmares decided to join in to have their share of making Yami miserable.

Seto completely forgot about whatever it was he had been doing on his laptop. He couldn't help but get up and walk over to the couch to quietly and gently sit down, maneuvering himself so that Yami's head settled comfortably on his lap.

He was reminded of the times he used to comfort Mokuba whenever he had bad dreams. It was the same, except for the fact that now, he managed to get Yami to stop pleading so distressingly in his sleep, but couldn't take away the pain that made him whimper so helplessly. That did not make him leave Yami and return to his work, though.

He stayed in that position, stroking Yami's hair gently and driving away the nightmares he had, until Mokuba returned from school. His brother looked extremely concerned, so Seto told him that today they reduced the drug's dose. He had previously explained to Mokuba what exactly was going on and why Yami was staying with them. Mokuba, if he wasn't old enough, was wise enough to understand and feel compassionate. Yes, he was of great, great help for the first few days.

He didn't disappoint Seto now, either. As soon as he understood what was going on, Mokuba set up his homework in Seto's office, making sure to sit within viewing range of Yami. And he started doing his homework, every now and then taking a glance at Yami whenever he became restless, catching his hand whenever one of those heart-breaking sounds of distress escaped him.

Within an hour or two of Mokuba's return from school, Yami woke up. And with his awakening, Seto witnessed one of the most painful and upsetting scenes ever.

Blinking and trying to fully regain his consciousness, Yami smiled happily for a moment and looked at Mokuba, muttering in askance, "Yugi…?"

He sounded so hopeful…Seto did not know why he had mistaken Mokuba for his deceased twin, since it was obvious that there was no similarity whatsoever between them. Perhaps it was the gentleness of his brother's touch, which persisted in Yami's mind… he really did not know, but he didn't care. The incident was just too…agonizing to witness.

But Mokuba handled it brilliantly. Seto didn't think, if he was in his little brother's place, that he would be able to handle it that well, had their places been reversed.

The boy did not get flustered or confused and didn't turn to him for help out of this situation. Help that Seto wouldn't have been able to provide. He, however, smiled widely and left his books, getting up to sit on a clear area of the couch, saying as he held Yami's hand, "Nope… it's Mokuba." And as Yami's gaze focused and he realized where he was and that Yugi was no longer around, Mokuba smiled widely and leaned down a bit so that he was at eye-level with Yami and asked, "How are you feeling now?"

Seto held his breath, wondering what would be the answer.

To his relief, Yami smiled back at Mokuba, the calmness behind it genuine and he answered, "I am much better, thank you…"

And with that, Seto knew that the worst of it for today passed. The rest of the day would pass a bit more peacefully. And it was true. Yami got up and told them he would go upstairs to take a shower and change so he could get ready for dinner. Seto made sure to make him drink a can of an energy beverage before he went upstairs, not heeding any of Yami's grumbles or protests about how much he didn't feel like it.

Not surprisingly, Yami did not do much to his plate at dinner, except redecorating it and rearranging the food on it into different places. Seto did not push him too much, knowing that that must be normal. Now was _not_ the time to pester Yami about food.

The doctor, when he came over to visit at eight, as he had promised to do everyday, checked Yami over and asked about the progress throughout the whole day. The old man made sure to stress upon the necessity of Seto maintaining a strong will against any future attempts from Yami to ask him to provide him with the drug.

At that, Yami spoke for the first time in a while.

"That is not necessary. I will not be asking him for anything," he mumbled.

"Yami, I just want to make sure…just in case your motivation falters…"

"It won't."

The doctor remained silent for a few moments, before smiling and nodding, "Alright, son… I trust you." And he got up, making Seto follow. Before moving towards the living room's exit, he added, "Remember to stay hydrated. This is just the beginning, Yami, so you might need to stay in bed later on. You won't be able to walk around like you did today."

Yami nodded absentmindedly.

Seto didn't want to think of what was 'worse' than this.

After showing the old man out and promising to take care of Yami to the best of his ability, Seto walked idly back into the living room. Yami looked up at him and smiled tiredly, a smile which Seto returned with one of his own.

"Are you okay?" Seto asked, needing to hear Yami's reassurance.

Yami nodded slowly, "Better than today morning…"

"Why don't you go upstairs and get ready for bed. I'll get your meds ready and something for you to drink…" Seto suggested.

Yami nodded and got up, swaying slightly on the spot. He accepted the hand Seto offered him until he stabilized himself on his feet. "Thanks," he mumbled, smiling widely, as though he was just given a piece of candy.

"What's the big smile for?" Seto asked with a playful, questioning gaze.

"Seto Kaiba held my hand again…" Yami said with an even wider grin.

And he walked away towards the stairs, leaving Seto standing in the same place, a reddish tint splashing his cheeks and a tiny smile adorning his lips…

* * *

Seto realized that the fourth day of Yami's detox was just…a warm-up. The days to follow, where Yami took the shot on every alternate day, went by a lot smoother. After that, however, things got a lot, a lot worse. At one point, he was sure he asked Yami to make some sound or the other… it was okay, he told him that. He just needed Yami to get out of this state of silent agony, as though he was enduring a deserved punishment quietly.

Of course, Yami did not comply with his request.

The second day after they ran out of all the heroin shots they had with them, Yami passed out on the couch, which became his usual spot nowadays. Seto took him upstairs, put him in bed and stayed with him till he woke up again.

It was…bad. It was really bad, and it all passed by Seto as though he was living a really nasty nightmare. He couldn't recall much of what happened, after Yami finally settled down into the first comfortable sleep he got for the first time in four long days. He waited by his side, immensely glad to see Yami sleeping deeply, not bothered at all by nightmares or pains of any type. It was well-deserved sleep, Seto knew that. Even if he couldn't recall everything that happened, he still remembered an outline of what happened. He remembered that Yami was in so much pain. He remembered that instead of screaming out in pain, Yami cried in silence. He remembered wondering what the numerous nightmares Yami had, were centered around. He remembered deciding that he really did not feel like finding out.

He was just relieved, about two and a half weeks after Yami moved in with him in the Mansion, when Yami woke up, features looking much more relaxed and his face losing its deathly pallor.

He smiled and sat on the edge of the bed. "Hey," he said, tilting his head slightly so he was within Yami's near line of vision.

"Hi," Yami told him, his tone, although weak and barely audible, quite cheerful.

"How are you feeling now?" Seto asked, praying to sense honesty behind the "I'm fine," Yami usually gave him.

To his relief, Yami's smiled broadened and he mumbled, "Hungry…"

Seto laughed, "Alright…I'll bring up something for you…"

Yami interrupted him. "No, I think I will get up and take a shower. What time is it now?" he asked, sitting up and tentatively swinging his legs to place them on the floor.

"It's 6:30…" Seto answered him, not moving a muscle to help Yami get up.

"I think I'll be able to make it downstairs before dinner time," Yami said with a calm smile, managing to make it to his feet on his own.

"Alright then, we'll wait for you anyway," Seto assured with a nod.

True to his word, Yami managed to make it down the stairs within twenty minutes. He was dressed in a pair of baggy cargos and a loose-fitting, comfortable sweatshirt. His hair, slightly damp from the shower, was pulled into a ponytail, away from his eyes which were shining with new brightness that made them look like glittering gems, compared to the dullness of the past few days.

Seto couldn't stop looking at him.

Eventually, Mokuba giggled suddenly and kicked him from under the table.

"Ouch!" he said, glaring at his brother.

"Focus on your food and eat it up," Mokuba told him playfully, throwing a sideways glance off at Yami, who snickered and cut up a small piece of beef steak with his knife, stabbing it with his fork and dragging it in the sauce for a bit, before raising it to his lips to eat it.

Seto narrowed his eyes at his brother and looked at his food, starting to eat since he had been too busy staring at Yami who suddenly looked, to him, like the most beautiful thing in the whole world, even if he was a little underweight.

He listened, as Yami and Mokuba spoke about random stuff. Mokuba was telling Yami about the kid in school he bit today, and Yami started laughing at the unique method of self-defense. Seto chuckled slightly under his breath along with them, wondering if it was possible to keep Yami with them all the time so he could keep that smile on his face.

He kept blinking a few times, wondering if Téa's suggestions to take Yami out on a date, really got to him.

He studiously decided that the beef steak was particularly good today. He had to remind himself to thank the chef.

He was thinking about how to thank the chef even after dinner so, needless to say, he was grateful for the more sensible, reasonable distraction of his phone ringing, a call from his assistant. He was vaguely aware, as he left the dinning room to go into his office, that Mokuba excused himself and said he would go upstairs to finish up his homework before he went to bed, while Yami…he didn't know where Yami went.

Half an hour later, he went outside into the living room to see it completely empty. There was utter silence in the house, no indication of anyone in the downstairs level of it. Seto was about to go upstairs to search for…someone, when he stopped when he was passing by the windows overlooking the garden.

He smiled a bit and allowed his feet to do the thinking, leading him towards the door that led outside to the garden directly. He quietly made his way to one of the comfortable seats placed under a large tree. He settled comfortably and sat watching Yami, who was sitting on the grass, playing with the stray kitten which, not so surprisingly, was adopted by Mokuba…

It was a calming sight to behold. Especially after the tension of the past two weeks, it really did a very good job soothing the strain Seto felt for the past while. He never thought he would be doing something like this for another person who was not his younger brother. He never thought he…cared enough about anyone.

He tried not to make himself think about anything in particular right now. His mind was as though on fire from the thinking he had been doing for the past while, so he decided to just relax and stop worrying so much. he focused his attention on Yami, as he hung the drawstrings of his sweatshirt in front of the kitten, and whenever it reached up to catch it, he would playfully pull it away, making his new, furry friend meow and climb on top of him to try and reach the thread.

He wasn't aware of how much time passed as he sat like that, but when Yami suddenly realized that he wasn't alone in the garden, and Seto looked at his watch, he saw it was a little past 09:30PM.

Yami picked up the kitten and walked over to the other seat beside Seto's. He sat down in it, stroking the area under the animal's chin, making it purr happily and curl up on his lap. Comfortable silence hovered, until Seto remarked, after seeing that the kitten fell asleep, "You're so good with her… it took me and Mokuba almost a whole day to get her to trust us."

Yami looked at him for a bit, before looking down once again at the sleeping kitten, "Yeah, I had a cat…" Seto nodded slowly, not daring to push Yami into telling him anything more than that. Yami, however, after a while of silence, added, "Her name was Chixo. She was a white, Persian cat who… erm…" he trailed off for a moment, as though the words failed him. Seto glanced at him, studying his features and the sad longing that appeared on them as he resumed finally, "She died…"

"I'm sorry," Seto offered in a low voice. It was such a sad thing…the story behind the simple, short "she died" that Yami gave him…it made him want to take all of the crap that happened to the person beside him, away.

"It's okay…she really is in a better place. I mean it," laughing, Yami said.

_Indeed_, Seto thought with bitter sarcasm, looking ahead at some bushes. He heard a small sigh beside him, feeling Yami shifting slightly in his seat. He looked to his side, watching as Yami shifted slightly, so he wouldn't disturb the sleeping kitten, and slid down further in his seat, so he was in a semi-upright position. He watched in fascination, as Yami's eyes got fixed above him at the sky, which, with Yami's condition, cleared, not a speck of a cloud visible.

Once again, time flew by without meaning as he kept staring at Yami's peaceful face, observing every turn of his eyes and every single twitch and motion. It was such a fascinating sight to keep looking at, Seto realized with a sudden burst of enlightenment. Yami wasn't…he wasn't the very, very beautiful type, that made heads turn and made girls –or boys—swoon at the sight of. Perhaps if he gained some more weight and if he had some more color on his face…perhaps then he would be that type. But now, as Seto stared at him mesmerized, after the brunet saw for himself a very small piece of the suffering this…this mere human being went through everyday… Yami looked to him like some fallen angel.

And just like he did not realize that he was staring for more than ten minutes at Yami as he looked up at the sky, he did not realize that his hand had moved on its own accord, reaching for Yami's face.

He snapped out of it, though, when Yami blinked and turned to look at him with slight apprehension.

He swallowed nervously, wondering how to get out of what he was doing just now. His hand moved by itself and made the decision for him and he gently tucked away a stray bang of Yami's hair which slid down into his eyes.

For a long while, Yami kept staring at him, different emotions making his eyes seem brighter suddenly. Finally, he moved. He got up, mumbling as he cradled the sleeping kitten in his arms, "I'm going to bed, Seto…"

But before he could leave, Seto's hand caught his and he held on to it. Yami stared at down at their joined hands for a moment, giving Seto the chance to get up and stand before him, shifting slightly.

"I'm…I'm sorry, I didn't mean that," Seto muttered, hitting himself mentally. That really was a very wrong thing to do. What would Yami think of him now? If he did not apologize now, Yami would definitely start thinking that he expected something in return for helping him. He had to make Yami accept his apology and realize that he really did not mean to demand anything of him.

Yami stared up at him and the corner of his lip twitched in a lopsided smile. To Seto's alarm, which he tried so hard not to let it show, he found Yami leaning closer staring at him in the eyes, intentions as clear as sunlight.

Seto couldn't…stop himself. He was no saint and even a saint in his place wouldn't be able to resist tilting his head downwards slightly, to meet Yami halfway through so that their lips brushed for a moment, in a kiss that redefined delight in his book. It was just too perfect, as though they were the lock and key to perfection of such an intimate, calming action.

But he suddenly recalled that time…when they had been in the gym's lockers…he remembered where that particular action led the last time they did it.

And he found it very natural to pull away, telling Yami firmly, "Stop!"

Yami stood back a step or two, chewing on the corner of his lip, his tongue darting out slightly to lick the same corner, as though he just had a very tasty treat. Seto swallowed nervously because of the effect the sight had on him, and forced himself to understand Yami's words as he said, "I'm sorry. I crossed the line," and was about to leave.

Seto stopped him, "You didn't…I am not scarred for life, Yami. Far from that actually."

Yami stared up at him in silent, blank lack of understanding.

"I do not want it, however, to end up like last time," Seto added.

Yami calmly looked at him, "Do you want it to?"

"_Oh God_!" Seto exclaimed in exasperation. "No, Yami. I don't," he vehemently stated. "What do you think of me…? I told you, I am not doing any of this expecting something in return. When are you going to trust me on that?"

Yami smiled and shook his head, "I already do."

"Then why do you keep repeating such awful things? When will I be sure that when I kiss you, you won't be doing it feeling indebted to me in some way or the other?" Seto demanded.

Yami's smile turned bitter, "I keep repeating those things just so I can hear you say what you just said…I want to be sure…"

Seto stared at him in silence, wondering if Yami truly was hurt so much that he couldn't trust anyone who told him they wanted to care for him, without expecting a return.

"You're not like them…" Yami mumbled, staring down at his feet, hugging the tiny animal he was still holding, closer to his body. "Please tell me you are not like them…"

Seto did not know who the 'them' were. He had a pretty good idea, though.

So, he shortened the distance between him and Yami, who now had small, crystalline tears sliding down his face in silence. He hooked his index finger beneath Yami's chin and raised his head, so he could stare into the tearful, glittering crimson eyes.

"No, Yami. I am not like them and I won't be. Please believe me, because I don't want to repeat this to you ever again, alright?" he firmly said, making sure to keep looking into the crimson eyes.

Yami took a step towards him, so that their bodies stood right in front of each other and he leaned into Seto's taller frame, placing his head on his shoulder. Seto raised his arm and wrapped it around Yami's shoulders, pulling him closer and placing a tiny kiss on top of his head.

Perhaps…Téa had been right.

* * *

A/N: thank you sooo much to everyone who's been reading and reviewing… there so many people I want to thank in person but I simply don't have the time for it. I am sooo sorry, Internal Medicine is a round that is not to take lightly.

Thanks a lot to everyone, though. :D

Hathor…


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:** sorry for the delay…omg, I totally forgot yesterday :O

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Eleven**

The cursor on the screen kept blinking, after the phrase: "Dear Mr. Archer", which had nothing else after it to fill the email he had been trying to type out for the past hour and a half.

He took a glance sideways. Yami was sitting on the ground, some books spread out in front of him on the coffee table. He had taken the opportunity that he could now completely focus while doing a task that needed his attention and decided to look over some of what they had been doing in school over the past few months. His mere presence in the room with Seto made the brunet lose as much focus and attentiveness as Yami gained.

It was the day right after that small encounter of theirs in the Mansion's garden. Yami had drawn away from him a few minutes after he stopped crying completely. He muttered a small thank you and turned around, walking with calm, steady steps towards the door through which he entered the garden. Next time Seto saw him, was when he checked on him at midnight, seeing him peacefully asleep in his room for the first time in a little over a week and a half.

Today morning, Yami had dealt with him as calmly and gracefully as possible. Sure, he had avoided his eyes for the first few hours after he woke up at eight in the morning, but after that, things became a bit more natural and less awkward. Téa had dropped by at around 01:30PM, completely breaking the tiny slithers of icy tension between them that persisted. She was so happy Yami was now almost completely clean, she gave him a hug and kissed him on the cheek.

Of course, Seto daydreamed about calling Michael to tell him his girlfriend was raping another male…

But he pushed that aside when Téa moved away quickly, seeing the faraway look of sadistic happiness on his face. She gave him a long, thoughtful look, before her face broke into another huge smile of happiness, and a knowing look appeared on her face. Seto had to admit he was more than a little worried about the fact that her eyes and Mokuba's met fleetingly and they exchanged this evil, evil and mischievous look.

Téa left at a little bit after three, but Seto wasn't sure when, exactly, since he had been on the phone with a member of his Board of Directors, and got off only at 3:45. By that time, Yami had taken out his books and was sitting down calmly in his office, looking over some of the difficult Integration sums they had been doing in school.

It had been an hour exactly, since he walked into his office once again. the goddamn email to Mr. Archer just refused to occupy most of his attention, which seemed quite happy to be completely directed at how exactly he was going to ask Yami out…

"I need a cup of coffee," he announced finally, head making a thudding sound against the wood of his desk as he exasperatedly banged it against the hard surface.

The slight pain from the action made a good distraction, especially as Yami looked up at him in concern, asking, "Erm…are you okay?"

"Fine, fine…just fine," he reassured, waving his hand dismissively as he half-swayed out of the office.

He stood in front of the coffee-maker in the kitchen staring at it in silence, with so much concentration, as if expecting it to turn into some sort of matchmaker, telling him what to say or do without making a fool out of himself.

"He knows…"

He almost jumped a mile in the air when Mokuba's amused, giggly voice was heard from behind him. He raised a hand to his heart, trying to prevent it from penetrating his ribcage and muscles to come out through his chest, and whirled around, to see his brother with the cookie jar in one hand, while the other hand disappeared inside it.

He was just about to tell Mokuba not to eat the cookies, when he paused, thinking of what Mokuba just said, "Knows what? I mean…" he paused, amending his statement, since he didn't want to seem too obvious to his younger brother, "Who are you talking about?"

Mokuba giggled evilly, "The one you were thinking of right now…" Seto wanted to tell him that he had been thinking of the coffee-maker, but he kept quiet and stared in horror, when Mokuba resumed, "He knows that you're gonna ask him out. Go ahead and do it, he won't turn you down…"

"Well, I don't know, but…" Seto started, distractedly arranging toothpicks to build a tiny tower, before he paused once again and snapped, "Hey! What are you talking about?!" he was feeling so overly self-conscious, his face was burning. _Dammit_, he thought, trying to will down his blush.

Mokuba sighed in exasperation.

Seto carefully stared at him, wondering what he did wrong now!

"_Seto…_" Mokuba whined. Seto looked at him some more, face blank. "I am talking about Yami. You two are obviously an item; it's clear as sunlight, okay? Ah, ah, ah! Let me finish," he said the last part, raising a chocolate-stained finger, and wiggling it at Seto, who stared at the chocolate-smeared appendage with an apprehensive, incredulous look instead of protesting like he had been planning. Mokuba resumed, once again burying his hand in the cookie jar and taking out another one of the sweet treats, "So, when you were on the phone, Téa and I told Yami that you are going to ask him out soon and that he should say yes at once. Since you're a nice guy and he's a nice guy, you two are a match from heaven, get me?"

Seto just continued to stare at him, shocked that Téa and his oh-so-innocent brother actually spoke to Yami about him like that…he wasn't so sure what shocked him more. The fact that the girl and his brother actually discussed such a thing with Yami, or the fact that he was so easily read like an open book and that his top-secret plan to ask Yami out was not so secret after all and that both figured it out without so much as a blink of an eye…

"No? You didn't get me? Aww! Seto! I'll repeat…"

"NO!" Seto quickly said, before lowering his voice, hissing out, "I want you not to talk about this anymore to Yami! Just…Just…" he gesticulated wildly, not finding the correct words, before settling onto saying in a hushed yell, "My private life! No meddling! Not you, not Téa, no one. Get _me_?"

Mokuba gave him a huge grin, the corners of his mouth completely stained with chocolate, as he nodded happily and turned around to leave. However, just as Seto was about to breathe a sigh of relief that he was finally by himself to his thoughts again, he called out, "Oh by the way…he seemed as though Christmas arrived early for him when we told him…"

Seto sighed in exasperation. Sweet, amazing Mokuba. Only he knew how to make him jumpy as well as happy at the same time…

Of course, he could have asked his sweet brother for a subtle way to ask Yami out, but…he thought he would rather stay here alone to think of a way by himself. Since his own 'subtle' and Mokuba's 'subtle' were two entirely different worlds.

Five minutes later, he was walking back inside his home office once again. His footsteps were hesitant, and he felt the mug of coffee almost slipping out of his hand with how sweaty his palms were. However, the moment he walked into the room, he blinked and a sudden, serious expression overtook his features, when he saw Yami uncomfortably shifting, a hand resting on his midsection, his breathing heavy and his face slightly damp with pain…

It took him a little less than a few moments to find himself at Yami's side, sinking to the ground beside him, asking in concern, "Hey…what's wrong?"

Yami blinked and seemed as though he became aware that he wasn't alone, just at that moment. He gave Seto a small, weak smile, which seemed almost like a cringe than a smile, and breathed out, "Fine…just a small cramp, I guess…"

Seto was sure he wasn't aware of what his body was doing at that moment, because suddenly, his arm had gone around Yami's shoulders, pulling him closer and his free hand was tangling its fingers with Yami's hand, while his lips were brushing against the soft, silky strands of multicolored hair, making shushing little sounds when the lithe body he held shuddered slightly with pain.

After a while, Yami's body relaxed, but he did not pull away from him. In fact, he seemed to relax even more when he realized that Seto was holding him so gently. And Seto did not stop holding the small hand in his, neither did he stop brushing his lips against Yami's soft hair. It was an oddly comfortable position. Seto found himself feeling like he had spent an entire day running, and lifting heavy stuff and going up and down the stairs, and then finally, he laid down in bed…it was exactly the same feeling, holding Yami and leaning against him and feeling him leaning against him like that.

"Sorry…" Yami mumbled suddenly after a few minutes.

"'S okay," Seto replied, making no move at all to get out of this comfortable position.

"Seems it is not completely over yet," Yami whispered, head moving slightly, tilting upwards. Seto stared down a little, not wanting to miss a second of observing Yami's relaxed, calm features from this close angle. He could see every little detail, starting with the beautiful, prominent, brown-colored mole in the center of Yami's right cheek, to the twinkling, mesmerizing crimson orbs which were shining with luster that gave them just what they had needed just a month ago, and finally, ending with the long, dark eyelashes that brushed one another with grace as Yami blinked while staring at him. The moment was magical, enhanced when Yami whispered, "Stay a bit longer…the pain may come back…"

And so, Seto stayed, smiling gently and closing his eyes, his arm pulling Yami even closer to his body.

Actually, both of them stayed like that for so long, that they eventually fell asleep that way. When Seto opened his eyes once more, he was vaguely aware that the office was darker, bathed in the pleasant, warm orange colors of the sunset. He was also aware that Yami's hand had left his and was instead, running through the soft strands of his hair, to slide all the way out of them, to touch his face with gentle, ethereal touches that made him shiver deliciously.

However, a second or two later, the movement completely stopped.

"Don't stop," he whispered, knowing that Yami was aware that he was very much awake right now.

Yami stiffened slightly in his hold, before unwinding again after a little bit. "Sorry I woke you," he whispered back to him.

Seto laughed quietly, "Why are we whispering?"

Yami giggled a little as well, answering in the same hushed voice, "I have no idea…"

Seto smiled, and leaned his head down a little bit, so that his mouth was right beside Yami's ear. "I need to ask you something," he murmured quietly to Yami.

Yami moved away a little bit, staring at him with a small grin. He moved up a little, so he could also whisper in Seto's ear, "What?"

And he once again moved back, staring at Seto expectantly.

Seto just kept staring at him from that angle, the sun's last rays falling onto his face from the left, where the window was, casting shadows on one side of his smiling features, while lighting up the other side. It hypnotized Seto to see the orange-yellow shades falling on Yami's face like that, bringing out the tan color of his skin and the exotic, dark shade of his eyes. He couldn't help but smile widely, feeling that he was the bravest person on Earth.

He leaned closer, his hand rising to the side of his face, beside his mouth, as whispered into Yami's ear slowly, "Would you like…to go out for dinner with me tonight…?"

Yami stayed completely still, as he sat there, his hands wrapped around Seto's wrists, as though he wanted them to stay there forever, or as though he wanted to hold onto Seto forever. Seto pulled back so slightly, so he could catch a glimpse of Yami's expressions, wondering if he did the right thing asking Yami that. Was it too soon to be asking him out? Were Mokuba and Téa wrong?

It was a little too late to be wondering about those questions, so he was eternally grateful when Yami leaned closer to him, whispering beside his ear, "I'd love to…"

* * *

Seto watched Yami from across the table, a small smile lifting the corners of his lips slightly. Yami was reading over the many different dishes in the menu, hmm-ing and making other sounds while doing so, the task taking too much time. Seto had already decided what he wanted to order about…ten minutes ago, but Yami seemed to be taking his own sweet time.

"I think I'll take…" Yami suddenly started, making Seto stare at him in anticipation, awaiting the 'big decision' to be voiced, but then paused, mumbling, "Oh wait, no…I don't like that dish's sauce…"

Seto started laughing, making Yami shoot a mock affronted glare at him. It went on for a few more minutes, until Yami eventually ended up ordering the same thing Seto ordered, the delicious sounding Bekri Meze that was a specialty of the Greek restaurant they had gone to.

Seto continued to stare in amusement at Yami, marveling how he seemed nothing like the unruly rascal he knew just one or two months ago. Yami now sat across the table from him, with the grace befitting one of the sons of a royal family, sipping little by little from the glass of Mavrodafni, which he immediately recognized as though he was a pro at identifying wines and their different types and varieties.

"You're really…" Seto started, making Yami blink and raise an eyebrow questioningly. He paused, not finding the correct word at the moment. He was surprised. He couldn't say that this completely new person sitting before him was the exact same person he had called an irritating, spoilt brat, just a few weeks ago. He couldn't find the term, so he settled onto saying, "Unexpected…"

It was partially the truth. Who could have expected that Yami Motou, Domino High's psychotic druggie, could make Seto Kaiba, Head Boy, school's golden student and its brightest, fall head over heels for him. Yes, Yami was unexpected alright.

In response to his words, Yami started chuckling, took a sip out of his drink, before asking, "Why?" Seto stared at him for a bit longer, shrugging when he couldn't answer. "You didn't expect me to know how to even speak to that waiter, didn't you?" Yami asked once again, giving him a small, serene smile.

Seto wanted to say no, that that wasn't it and nothing like it…but like that, he would be lying, so he nodded thoughtfully for a bit, before muttering, "Yeah…Yes, actually…"

He was expecting that Yami explained why exactly he seemed so experienced, being at a public place like that. However, Yami giggled, saying instead, "Yeah, I know. I surprised myself right now as well…"

Seto kept staring at him for a while longer, before laughing, shaking his head at how bizarre Yami acted sometimes. He watched, as Yami lifted the glass once more to his lips to take a small sip from it. His eyes drifted down from the pair of wine-colored lips that were an uncomfortable source of distraction right now, down Yami's right shoulder and down his arm. There, he found Yami's other hand setting down the glass of wine, before moving to the arm he was just watching, to absentmindedly scratch back and forth on it from above the simple, golden button-up shirt he was wearing.

Seto found himself staring at Yami's arm distractedly, imagining the myriad of scars that lay beneath the fabric and wondering how many new ones were made since the last time he saw them. He was overwhelmed by a feeling of sudden depression. Yami managed to win gloriously against his addiction…but what about other things? What about his addiction to self-harm? What about that monster waiting for him back at home? What happens when the remaining ten days they had together came to an end?

"Stop thinking…I can practically hear you talking to yourself from here…"

He blinked, looking up at Yami, who had pulled his right arm away from the table, and placed it on his lap. Seto stared at his features for a bit, studying the slightly embarrassed, awkward look there and he realized that his companion for dinner tonight caught him staring at his arm.

He didn't tear his gaze away. He kept staring at Yami, asking after a little while, "Did it make you feel better…?"

Yami looked down at his arm. Seto wanted to tell him that perhaps he could pass and not answer if he didn't feel like it. But he wanted to know the answer even more than he wanted Yami to avoid those painful topics tonight. He really, really wanted an answer.

Thankfully, Yami did not ignore him, or ask him to change the topic, or told him that it wasn't any of his business. He smiled a little and looked at him, shrugging, "No…" he answered. Seto stared at him some more, so he explained, "It was painful…and very disgusting. I felt like a butcher most of the time, except that it was my own blood staining my hands. And the smell of blood, after a while… I got used to it and that was the most disgusting part of it all. And by the smell of blood, I mean the heavy one when you have so much of it around. Not the sharp, coppery smell, but the heavy one that makes you gag… it was always as though I have slaughtered a lamb in my room, or my bathroom… so…" he paused for a while, staring absently at the corner of the table. Seto waited for him to finish. "So no, it never really helped me…"

Seto gave a curt, understanding, little nod, and before he knew what he was doing he had reached for Yami's hand that he had placed on the table once again, and held it, giving it a gentle little squeeze.

Yami smiled reassuringly at him, "I stopped…" Seto gave him a confused, little look, so he added, "I haven't…I haven't done it," the crimson eyes glanced fleetingly at its owner's arm, before looking up into his once again, Yami resuming, "Since the first night I spent with you and Mokuba…"

Seto's face broke into a huge, delighted grin, "That is wonderful, Yami…"

Yami gave him another small smile, humming in approval. "Can we…talk about something else?" he whispered.

Seto leaned back in his chair a bit, before pressing a bit further, "You'll have to talk about it sooner or later, Yami…you can't keep changing the subject forever."

"Perhaps you're right…" Yami agreed, shifting his suddenly shiny crimson eyes away, so he could stare at the corner of their table once again. He paused for a while, adding when the silence became too heavy, "But I don't want to ruin this…"

"Ruin it for me? Or ruin it for yourself? Because if you are afraid of spoiling the night for me when you talk about this, then I should ask you not to worry," Seto nodded.

Yami looked up at him, silently asking him to just let this go. But Seto wanted to prove a point here that what was going on with Yami shaped him into the person sitting there with him. The person that Seto asked out in the first place. Yami had no idea about that, as he asked, "Don't you…" he paused, the words stopping at his lips for a second, in which he looked away from Seto's eyes, mumbling, "I just told you…how…disgusting these…" he vaguely pointed to his arm, up and down, "are. You've seen it all, anyway, haven't you? Aren't you the least bit…put off?"

"No, not really," Seto negated, shaking his head. Yami frowned in confusion, once again raising his head to meet his eyes. Seto took the chance to add, "Stop thinking of it like it's your fault…what's happening to you right now. It's not your fault. You have absolutely no reason to feel that you put people off. Because that is the only thing that may put _me_ off about you."

Yami kept looking at him for a while, even as the waiter came along at that moment and placed their orders in front of them, wishing them a good meal.

Yami recovered just in time to politely offer his thanks in the form of a slight nod, before turning to Seto once again, who picked up his fork, mumbling cheerfully, "Looks delicious, doesn't it?"

Yami blinked and looked down at his food, for once feeling that the big, empty void inside his stomach that prevented him from enjoying any food at all, no matter how much he loved it, was gone. He felt a smile spreading on his features, as he picked up his fork, starting to eat happily, feeling as though a huge load was taken off his shoulders.

Seto stealthily looked at him, as he ate the fancy dish with a delighted look on his face, which suddenly seemed brighter than ever. The smile on his features was contagious and soon, Seto, too, smiled and asked, "Do you like it?"

Yami nodded, chewing on the forkful he had just placed in his mouth. "I ate it once at a…" he said once he swallowed, but suddenly, he stopped.

Seto looked up at him in askance, worry making itself clear on his features when he saw how pale Yami's face became and how the smile lighting up his face, disappeared. "It's okay…you can tell me…" he said quietly. "If you want to," he added as an afterthought.

Yami dazedly stared elsewhere for a while and Seto suddenly recognized the look. The one Yami usually put on whenever he was walking through the corridors of the school and whenever he seemed to shut the whole world out and lock himself up behind walls he spent too much time building up around himself.

But suddenly, that look disappeared and Yami looked up at him, a tight, pained smile adorning his face, as he said, "It was a…bad day…"

At that, Seto decided that pressing matters anymore than that would be plain rudeness. So he gave Yami a little smile, once again reached to the other side of their table and caught the small hand that was clenching and unclenching in worry, giving it a small squeeze. "Well, then I am glad you picked this dish this time…so you'll have a hopefully good memory to block out the bad one…"

Yami smiled once again, this time his face lighting up even brighter than last time.

They never noticed the two men sitting in a table that was a few meters away from theirs. Both were staring at them both in amusement, exchanging little comments with a mean expression on their faces, especially as they pointed at Yami and stared at him in a way which, if he had seen it, would have made Seto kill them with his bare hands right on the spot.

* * *

As the remainder of the three weeks Yami was spending at the Kaiba Mansion passed, Seto's anxiety grew more and more. Sure, everything was going fantastically for both of them. Yami trusted him more than ever now, managing to speak more than just a few times about a few incidents that happened with his father. Seto made sure to let him know each and every time that none of what happened was his fault, because that seemed to be Yami's main idea regarding every single thing happening to him.

But in spite of the slow, but steady, development of their relationship –Seto couldn't believe he was using such a term!—it did not make the anxiety that grew with every passing day, any lesser. The time for Yami to go back to the hellhole he called home was drawing nearer. He could see that Yami, too, was getting more and more nervous. Whenever he tried speaking to him of going to the police now, when he had the chance and before he got hurt at all anymore, Yami shake his head, mumbling in response that they had no evidence against his father right now.

Seto didn't want to know what that meant and tried avoiding asking Yami that. Instead, he tried to gather as much backup forces as possible to try and convince Yami to report this to the authorities when he was still away from harm's way. Téa, Mr. Anderson, the doctor and even the Principal himself tried getting him to do so.

The latter's visit to the Mansion had been…amusing, to witness, at least from Seto's point of view. It was a surprise to open the door to find the older man standing before them with a friendly, optimistic smile on his face. Seto had invited him in, asking to what he owed the pleasure of this visit. He was certain that the answer would be that the older man came to check on Yami. He was right.

It was quite comical, to drag Yami out of his hiding place in his office, to push him towards the living room, where Mr. Paul was seated, waiting to see them both. Seto stood back, as Yami and the Principal stared at one another carefully, as though waiting for the other to bite. Seto tried not to laugh as he watched them, knowing that both of them never really were on friendly terms with one another—especially not after Yami caused chaos in the cafeteria and Mr. Paul suspended him from school for three days…

Eventually, Yami's docile appearance and the way he mumbled a small, somewhat cute 'hello', Mr. Paul unwound from the stiffness that was causing the tension and asked Yami how he was doing and whether he was better now or not. Seto resisted the urge to burst out laughing again, at how awkward the whole situation was. Yami was uncomfortable, thinking that any moment, Mr. Paul would be calling his secretary to tell her to call his dad to tell him he wasn't away at some foreign exchange trip. Mr. Paul stared at Yami as though he was the proof to Darwin's theory of the so-called human evolution…

But they were civil to one another, something that Seto wasn't so sure it would be the case. Eventually, Mr. Paul opened the topic of going to the police, with Yami, and Yami, once again, refused, muttering in quiet tones that he had a plan…a plan which he did not want to share with anyone just yet.

After a while of trying to get Yami to change his mind, Mr. Paul nodded, saying a few words that made Yami stare up in shock and disbelief at him. "Alright son…I trust you are more than capable of handling this. I just hope you're not killing yourself needlessly," he said, absolute faith in his age-wrinkled eyes.

Seto had shifted his gaze between the two, seeing Yami look down at his feet as he sat at the edge of the couch, looking like a little boy told to sit that way, by his parents. He didn't look up to meet the Principal's eyes, making the older man stare at him persistently for a few seconds before getting up.

Dutifully, Yami got up along with him, but still didn't look up to meet his gaze. At that moment, Mr. Paul walked towards Yami, leaning a bit closer, making Yami flinch in alarm, even if he stayed still. The older man waited until Yami was sure he didn't have anything funny on his mind, before saying something to him in a low voice that did not reach Seto's ears.

But he knew it must have been something that Yami did not usually hear from other people. He knew that the moment he saw the way Yami's features smooth over from the tight, uncomfortable look they had and a smile lit up his face as he mumbled, "I am not doing it anymore, anyway…" and he looked at Seto from over the older man's shoulder, adding, "Kaiba's a…nice guy. Even if he doesn't look like it…he's a nice guy."

Seto had blinked and his arms, previously crossed over his chest, uncrossed and he stared incredulously as Mr. Paul turned to look suspiciously at him, mumbling to Yami, "Really? Never thought I'd hear someone say that. Usually the students who come complaining call him…err…let's omit stating the exact terms, shall we?"

Seto raised an eyebrow, arms once again rising to get crossed in front of his chest, this time in a more challenging stance than before.

Yami stared at him for a while longer, before adding, addressing the Principal, "Okay, let's not tell anyone that he's a nice guy…he does have an image he has to keep up, doesn't he?"

"Indeed," was the last thing Mr. Paul said to Yami, as he headed for the front doors.

Of course, after he said goodbye to the older man, promising to do what he could to try and convince Yami to do as they told him, Seto had to slowly suffer Yami nicknaming him 'nice guy', all day long.

He failed in his task and it was the night right before he took Yami to the airport where his father would be waiting to pick him up. Yami was packing his stuff into the suitcase he had with him, listening as Seto tried for the millionth time this week to convince him to at least give the authorities a call. He looked so calm, but Seto didn't know what was going on with him on the inside.

"I told you…I have to have some evidence when I speak to someone. You have no idea how deep my dad's relations go. He will bribe the police if he had to," Yami evenly told him, folding a pair of his pants and placing them neatly in the suitcase. "I'll once again be called crazy and nothing will happen. Not that I mind being called crazy, since it has some truth behin…"

Mid-rant, Seto had gotten up and before Yami could finish, he interrupted him by wrapping his arms around him, stilling his movements and stopping his words. Yami froze for a second in his arms, Seto waiting patiently until he relaxed, before giving him a small kiss on the side of his head, mumbling, "I don't want you to get hurt again… you can do this without having to get hurt again…I'll back you up. If he has influence, then so do I…"

Yami turned in his arms and shook his head, interrupting him, "It's our word…against his… and trust me, we won't be able to get anything at all done if we don't have evidence to give to the police. I spent over three weeks here, Seto and any physical injuries vanished and if I still had any, he could very possibly deny he gave them to me, since, as the school's official records say, I had been out of town for the past few weeks."

Seto could see the logic behind Yami's words, even if he did not like it one bit.

"I don't want you hurting anymore…" he mumbled, placing his cheek on Yami's hair.

"If I don't do this…then I most probably will never get away from him," Yami replied quietly.

Perhaps Yami was right. No, actually…he was absolutely right. But it still did not make the knots forming sickeningly at the pit of Seto's stomach unwind.

* * *

Something about the way his father greeted him at the airport made him even more nervous and tipsy than he already was. Something wasn't quite right. But he didn't ask; he didn't want to know. He quietly accepted the 'fatherly' hug and kiss the monster gave him, taking his suitcase and dragging it behind him with one hand while the other hand dragged Yami along with him.

Yami stayed silent most of the ride home, answering questions like "how was it?" and "did you have fun?" and such, with monosyllabic answers. He had smiled nervously when his father had stared at him for more than ten seconds, before commenting that he looked…different. Of course he looked different; he didn't look like a drug addict anymore and his features were more laid back and relaxed…of course he looked different.

Walking into his house felt like walking through the doors of a prison after getting a life sentence. He didn't know if he was ever going to get out… especially as he heard no sounds at all, except the sounds he and his father were making, which mean that the latter gave the staff the day off…which immediately meant that he was at this psycho's mercy, till God knows when.

But nothing happened after his father closed the door. The worst thing was just that he wrapped his arms around Yami –in a way that Yami was disgusted to find out that it was a mocking version of the way Seto held him just last night—and mumbled that he missed him while nibbling on the skin right below his ear in which he was whispering those words, making him infinitely uncomfortable.

"I'm here now," he replied, hoping he would be released soon so he could flee to the sanctuary of his room.

His wish was granted and he grabbed the opportunity to go upstairs to his room, where he unpacked, taking as much time as he could.

However, after he closed the suitcase, placing it once again in the corner of his walk-in closet, he came out to the room once again, to find the door getting locked with the key, his father's piercing crimson eyes glaring with cold fury at him in a way that made him shiver in fear.

He stood frozen on the spot, watching as the older man got closer, until he stood only a foot away from him, making him stare up to meet those crimson eyes, feigning bravery he did not feel at all.

"Two of my friends came to visit me a few days ago," conversationally, his father said, a hand rising to slowly trail a finger down his face, stopping at his chin, where strong, firm fingers got hooked beneath it, lifting it up a bit more.

Yami tried not to move and stayed silent. This was going to be so bad, although he never expected it to be so soon. He didn't know what he had to do with his father's friends coming over to visit…except that maybe they got angry because their favorite fuck-toy wasn't around as entertainment. He didn't think that that could earn him a beating…maybe it could. He didn't know.

However, with what his father said next, he knew that if he survived a few minutes into the near future, he should be mentioned in history books as one of the luckiest people who used to be amongst the living…

"They said they saw you with the Kaiba kid at one of the restaurants downtown Domino…"

* * *

A/N: thank you for reading ^_^

Hathor…


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N:** sooo sorry for the delay.

**Warnings:** violent chapter ahead. Disturbing themes/thoughts, as well as a good bit of gore. =D. Heed the warnings, oright?

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Twelve**

Yami stood cornered in between the door of his walk-in closet and the more impenetrable barrier impersonating his father's larger, muscular and slender body. Samuel stood casually in front of him, one hand placed inside the pocket of his elegant dress pants, lifting the corner of the grey, matching dress shirt up a little. His hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, one strand running loose from the others to fall onto the handsome features that were so, so ominous at the moment, Yami had no choice but to shudder in fear and try his hardest not to break down begging for forgiveness…

Sometimes, Yami got those sudden feelings of hesitation that were unwelcome beyond what words can say. Sometimes, in mere, fleeting seconds, he thought, _Oh shit, how did I ever think of doing what I did?_ Right now, that was the one thing going through his mind…what was he thinking? What the hell was he thinking…? He wished he could turn back time. He wished he did not ask Seto for help. He wished his life expectancy did not fall at that moment, to a few minutes –or hours, considering how much he would suffer before he was eventually killed—from the said moment.

He _really_ felt like falling to his knees and begging. He did not want to die…not yet. He really did not want to die today. But he knew. Deep down, he was _positive_ that even if he did get down to his knees. Even if he did the impossible and even if offered to sign a contract to become this man's slave for the rest of his life –just to make it official—he would still meet his end in a very small while from now.

He was going to go down. He was sure about that. But he preferred to go down fighting…rather than go down on his knees begging, when the outcome would be the same anyway.

He swallowed, nervously, and stared up at the reason his life was so fucking miserable right now and he smiled sweetly, asking, "Shouldn't it be my word against theirs? Do they have a picture…proof that they saw me? Why do you always put your friends and your social life before your son…? Or oh, wait…sorry, I forgot. I am not really your son."

Saying it out loud was…excruciating. He knew it. He was so sure of it. He knew it inside of him and he kept repeating it to himself every single day. But it still did not make it less painful to say. He struggled to make himself sound sarcastic. But he failed, ending up sounding bitterly, morbidly amused, the smile on his face turning pained.

But the pain in the grin turned to an agonized cringe when Samuel shifted slightly, snorting out a very pleased chortle that chilled him to the bone. He took a step towards him, shaking the strand of his smooth hair that slipped into his eyes when he shifted, the action natural, as smooth as ever, as he muttered in a low voice, "For once, Yami…you got that right. You finally realized that you are my property and nothing more than that…"

Yami blinked and resentfully looked away, not able to keep up the eye contact without starting to feel a prickle at the corners of his eyes. The words were just too painful and he really did not feel that he was able to handle staring at his father in the eye while hearing them.

"Tell your so-called friends to back up their claims with proof, otherwise they can go to hell," he said, turning away, trying to dodge his way around the older man so he could leave the room.

However, as he was passing by him, Samuel grabbed him by the upper arm and with ease that made his breath flee from his lungs, flung him back to where he had been standing, only this time slamming him up the closed doors of the closet with so much force and anger. Despite himself, Yami groaned softly in pain when the two knobs of the closet dug painfully into his lower back, sending dull spikes of pain up his back and around his waist.

He blinked and forced himself to look up, ignoring the pain for the moment. He couldn't look away from his father…not right now.

Angry, cold crimson eyes stared down into his own, close enough for him to see every single one of those long, definite eyelashes, as they joined for a moment in a slow, calm blink, before their owner spoke, hand rising to Yami's hair to tangle his fingers in the locks of multi-colored hair, "I do not like it when you walk away from me, Yami…"

Figuring that his father wanted to hurt him anyway, even if there was no reason for it, Yami's defiance seemed to come back powerful. He scowled heavily, boldly keeping eye contact this time while retaliating, "And I do not like the fact that you are a puppet in your _friends'_ hands. What? You believe every single thing they say as though you cannot think on your o…"

He never got to continue…

The fingers tangling in his hair tightened impossibly, pulling so hard on his hair he thought Samuel needed to scalp him with how powerful his grip became. The other hand had risen up so quickly and before he could even cringe in reflex, he was slapped so hard on the right side of his face, that his head snapped to the side, in spite of the firm way in which it was held.

He was vaguely aware that yet again, the fucking ring made a prominent cut on his cheek, running from his cheekbone down to the corner of his lip. Another vague part of his mind also noted how humiliating this was… his father truly had no problem hitting him on the face. It was the cruelest and most degrading way to land blows on anyone. Because a mark on the face was there for everyone to see and examine. It was there for them to see that this person is so worthless, they deserve being marked on such a prominent area…

Those thoughts were pushed away to the furthest corner of his mind, as survival instincts made every single thought on his mind scream for him to escape, to run and never come back. His head was jerked once again, forcing his eyes to meet his father's brutally cold ones once again.

Despite his determination, his vision was already swimming hazily behind the thin film of tears. However, he did not let that stop him from raising an eyebrow, whispering in low tones, "You're just doing this for fun, aren't you…? It's not about what your _stupid friends_ told you…"

He didn't know what took over him…where that suicidal streak of defiance came from. Perhaps it came from the continued period of tender care he had seen when he stayed with Seto and Mokuba. Perhaps it came from the power he felt surging through him after he stood victorious at the end of a vicious battle against one of the most lethal drugs known. Perhaps it was because he was mad at himself for not thinking that going out in Domino could mean that anyone can recognize him. Or perhaps…it came from the anger he felt at himself for _knowing_ that this was going to happen, and doing nothing at all about it…

He didn't get too much time to think of that, because everything suddenly burst into a lot of bright white lights, stunning him to a heap on the floor for a few seconds, after which he realized that the side of his head was bashed right into the hard, wooden door of the closet. He whimpered in pain, a late reaction to what happened, a result of shock more than it was a result of the pain, especially as he felt something hot, with a familiar, overpowering, coppery smell, sluggishly moving down his the side of his face, burning a trail down it.

He swallowed back the sudden feeling of nausea that overwhelmed him. Wasn't the time to breakdown yet, or he would have absolutely no hope of coming out of this one alive. Not that his chances now were very high, considering how he was once again grabbed, this time by the arm, and dragged quite easily to the center of the room, deposited like some trash bag at the foot of the bed on the ground.

He tried to catch his breath. To at least prepare himself for what came next. But he didn't have time, especially when he barely had time to react to the heavy foot that collided with his side, making unbearable, unthinkable pain explode in fiery, agonizing throbs, as the ribs which only just started healing from their past trauma, were most probably once again made to collapse from their ordinary shape to which they had been brought back to after many weeks of agonizingly slow recovery…

He couldn't breathe. He gasped, but the action caused so much excruciating pain…and as a reflex, he gasped once more…and with that even more pain arrived. He didn't think he could be in a worse situation than this. He didn't think he could be in more pain than this, as he suddenly started coughing, adding to the extreme, unbelievable torment searing through his torso, as his father did not relent, continuing to land one vicious, merciless kick after the other to his body that curled up into fetal position as the only defense it had against the onslaught.

Was this what dying felt like? Because certainly, nothing could feel worse than this. He couldn't breathe, and he wasn't allowed a moment to try and catch his breath. He was surely going to die within a few moments now, wasn't he?

It was hopeless. He was now dizzy beyond reason, the reason for the dizziness unknown to him. It may have been the shortage of air. Perhaps it was the pain. Or maybe the cut on his head wasn't as shallow as he originally thought? He didn't know, so he assumed it was all three combined.

He hated that he was going to die like this. At this bastard's feet, giving him the impression that he won. He hated that he couldn't live his life to repay Yugi for sacrificing his own for him. He hated that he was about to die without telling so many people how grateful he was for their concern for a little, insignificant piece of shit like him… and most importantly, he hated that he never got the chance to whisper into Seto's ear how much he loved him…

So, tears flowing down his face in torrents and mouth hanging open to gasp for air that refused to fill his lungs, he felt his vision dimming around the edges, turning black with every passing millisecond. The whole place seemed to have gotten its sounds muted; nothing else to be heard except his gasps for air that refused to get inside his body. And before everything darkened to pitch blackness, he heard himself whispering a few words of prayer, hoping they would be enough to make sure that wherever he was going hereafter wouldn't be as hellish as this place…

* * *

Seto, naturally, did not get a second's sleep the night Yami left the Mansion. He had returned home after dropping Yami off at the airport late afternoon, giving him a kiss on the cheek and begging him to be careful. Yami told him that it was going to be okay. Seto knew for sure that it was not going to be okay and no matter how many reassurances he got from Yami, he couldn't help it when sleep evaded his eyes that night.

He called Yami at seven-thirty. Yami did not pick up. He had this funny feeling in his chest and he couldn't explain it. It was so strange, as though he was witnessing something horrible taking place, but was unable to do anything to stop it. He had to use every bit of willpower not to rush to his cell phone to call Yami every fifteen minutes to check on him. But the feeling was maddening and somehow, he knew that Yami was in trouble at that moment.

The moment Téa saw him in the morning in school, she remarked, "You look like crap."

"Thank you," he sarcastically retorted.

She paused long enough for him to stop when a teacher addressed him, asking where he had been for the past few weeks, to which he replied that he had urgent business affairs to be dealt with. When he turned to her again, she gave him a nervous little grin, asking, "So…did you call Yami yesterday…?"

"Once," he answered. She hopefully looked at him and he had a sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach at her expressions, as he added, "He did not answer…"

Seeing the horrified look on her face, he realized that she too had no luck contacting Yami.

"Do you think…" she started, heading towards the school's entrance so she could wait for Yami there, resuming after a while, "that he is okay?"

He waited for a few seconds, thinking over her question several times, before shaking his head, "No…I think that he is in a lot of trouble right now. I don't know how…but…" how else could they explain Yami not answering their calls, even when he knew how worried the two would be?

She didn't say anything and made no move to make him discuss this issue further. And for that, he was grateful, as both of them stood together, anticipating Yami's arrival with hope they knew was actually futile. And in fact, their worries were proven to be correct, as the clock ticked past eight in the morning, the second bell ringing, shrilly announcing the start of the classes and the fact that Yami did not appear yet.

The first half of the day was spent in complete and pure worry, their thoughts undivided, as they thought only of Yami and the reason why he did not show up although he had assured Seto he would do so. When lunch hour started, both Seto and Téa taking up their places at the main entrance of the cafeteria so they could make sure no trouble happens, their eyes were darting back and forth between all the doorways that led into the place. They hoped…perhaps Yami would walk in through one; after all, he had done it one before, hadn't he?

Seto couldn't possibly describe how worried he was. He had heard Yami begging in his nightmares when he was trying to sleep off the withdrawal symptoms. He got a tiny glimpse of the real thing. He knew that right now, Yami must be going through hell. And he was so fucking pissed off that there was nothing he could do about it. He tried to call Yami again. But this time, instead of the phone ringing until it gave the busy tone, along with the message "no answer", Seto heard the smooth voice of the automated message, informing him that the phone is not in use and that it may be switched off.

Frustrated, he hung up, telling Téa what he heard. She was near tears, as she shifted her eyes frantically towards the entrances, her prayers almost vocal as she waited for Yami to walk into the cafeteria, no matter what his condition.

But lunch hour passed and as they made their way towards the Chemistry lab for their class. Seto saw Téa trying to evade Michael, who had walked up to her, concerned, asking if she was okay. She started crying, making her boyfriend's face get flooded with concern. Seto watched them with a grim expression, wondering if starting to cry like Téa would tarnish his reputation as the ever-stoic Seto Kaiba who could watch a village of innocents being slaughtered without shedding a tear. He suddenly realized that he didn't care right now what people thought. The only thing he cared about, was making sure that Yami was safe…

Unfortunately, he had no way of finding out at all, except walking out of the school to get inside his car and drive to Yami's house. And by doing that, he didn't know if he was making matters any worse or not…

So, when his cell phone suddenly started ringing in the middle of the Chemistry class, and when he took it out to see Yami's name written on the screen, he nearly sighed in relief, rushing to stand up and hurry out of the classroom, answering his phone with desperation, "Yami, are you okay…? Where've you be…"

He was interrupted by Yami's low voice, which held so much pain in it, it chilled him to the bone…

"Seto, I'm at Domino Memorial Hospital and…err…I need you to…I need you to come over, because I think…I think it's over now…"

Seto didn't even ask what Yami meant; he had a pretty good idea. He asked Yami where he was and after finding out, he told him that he was getting inside his car and was going to be there in less than ten minutes…

* * *

He wasn't so sure he was going to wake up. And so, it came as a surprise to him, as awareness started to slowly seep in, like water mingling into the cracks of a dried earth that hadn't come in contact with moisture for decades.

He resisted, of course, wanting to stay in the dark, painless abyss he had been confined to for the past while, but the pain and agony in every region of his body forced him to ruthlessly wake up. His crimson eyes slid open a very tiny crack, before he shut them quickly, moaning in pain when the bright light made him feel as though someone stabbed him behind his eyelids.

The sound he made forced him to also realize that he was in _so much pain_… he wondered vaguely how the hell he was still alive, never mind awake when he felt this much pain. He tried to assess his situation calmly as possible. He could feel a dull, maddeningly agonizing throb in his entire upper body. He had the nastiest headache ever and the nausea that threatened to overwhelm him right now made him realize that he had a very severe concussion, made worse by the fact that he had fallen asleep.

He tried to move, wanting to see if there were any other injuries and wanting to find out where he was before he had to open his eyes to make sure, but he immediately decided against the moving part. The moment he tried to shift, stinging pain erupted along his shoulders and arms and tiny pinpricks of pain spread on his hands. He realized that he was half-seated, his weight supported entirely by his hands which were bound somewhere above him with tight coils of rough rope. And when he moved, shifting to sit up, he also realized that sitting up wasn't in his best interest right now either…

Figuring it was time he pulled himself together and opened his eyes, Yami took a deep breath and tried once again. The pain this time was not any more bearable than last time, but he had to do this…

And so, after a few seconds –or maybe a few hours—of trying, he finally had his eyes open and he looked around him blearily.

He was in his room. Or what remained of his room. Everything was messed up. The furniture was almost completely broken, or tumbled over. The wallpaper was torn beyond repair. The bed was unkempt, the sheets rumpled and the coverlets thrown off it, and Yami suddenly felt the nausea he was feeling amplify when he saw the many different blotches of blood marring the golden color of the sheets. He whimpered and closed his eyes once again when he saw the disgusting, crusty, powdery traces of semen all over the place and felt them all over his body which, only now, he realized was naked.

He was cold. He needed to get out of here. He needed to wash up. He needed to kill his father. He needed to do a lot of things…

Yami stared around him. His hands were bound above him to the left lower corner of his bed. He amusedly wondered how come his father never bound him like that before, since really, the high, golden pillars of the Victorian-style bed's frame could have helped him do so. He forced himself to focus and he looked down at his body, shivering heavily when he saw the huge pool of blood that had formed underneath him, indicating with the way it was still damp that he had been bleeding until a very short while ago, if he wasn't still bleeding even now.

He swallowed, hoping and praying with every part of his being that the injury didn't stop him from fleeing once he got the chance. He experimentally pulled on his bonds, trying to see if he could untie them without having to cut off his hands in the process. The action only brought him the satisfaction of knowing that he was not going to get out of this with both his hands intact. However, he found that he didn't really care.

And so, he started twisting his hands around, trying to free his wrists. After some time, undefined to him, he could feel the warm, burning trickle of blood travelling down his arms. He didn't care, especially as he realized that his efforts were paying off, the ropes' knot becoming looser with every struggle and with every drop of blood. He was not about to stop now, not when he was about to free himself and definitely not because he was nauseated by the sight of the trickles of blood travelling down his arms.

However, just was he was about to get his right and free, he froze when he heard footsteps outside his room. He stared in horror at the doorway, knowing with the way the sound stopped that his father was about to pay him a small…'visit'.

He knew his father too well. He was right; a second or two after he heard the sound of the familiar footfalls stop, the door opened and Samuel walked in, looking vibrant and as though he didn't have a care in the whole world. Perhaps he didn't have a care…

No…actually, Yami was sure that his father had no care in the world. After all…after what was done to him yesterday, Samuel truly thought he was utterly, irreparably broken. Only he wasn't. But of course, Samuel didn't know that. He thought Yami was no threat now whatsoever. It was a wrong thing to assume of course.

And Yami had no intention at all to let him know just how wrong he was to think like that. He remained still, not even allowing himself to shudder fearfully in tandem with the sound of the soft footsteps falling against the carpet of his room, approaching him with the slowness of a predator approaching its prey. He clenched his eyes shut tightly, relaxing his arms and downright refusing to give the approaching monster the barest of hints that he had been about to free himself.

He could feel his father getting down on his knees beside him, crouching before him as though he was observing a small wild animal recently tamed. "You awake, Yami…?" he asked, voice gentle, mocking the word and every meaning behind it that made Yami crave it. He thought of ignoring the older man, simply not answering him and turning his head away a bit more to bury it in his upper arm which was pulled above his head the way it was. But Samuel was adamant. He reached out to touch his cheek, muttering, "C'mon now…you know I can see your eyelids twitching…you're awake."

Figuring that there was no way out except to open his eyes and face these few minutes –or hours, as he mentally prayed was not the case—, Yami did just that. He stared blankly into the crimson eyes so near his own, mumbling, "Untie me."

Of course, he already knew what the answer would be. "Nope, not yet," it was.

Yami kept staring into the crimson eyes he was now so familiar with, searching for any trace of humanity or compassion left, since he knew that the word 'father' meant nothing to this man. He vaguely reprimanded himself, when he found nothing that remotely resembled the warmth of good emotions in the crimson orbs, wondering why he thought the person before him was even human to begin with.

He listened with detached silence, as his father added, "I am going to leave you here for a while, so you can think over a few things and reach a decision as to whether you want to tell me where you have been for the past few weeks…and…well, we'll see what we can about those ropes when I get back home."

Yami simply continued to stare at him for while longer, before whispering out incredulously, "Did you…ever…_ever_ since I was born…did you ever look at me as your own flesh and blood… and not just some toy in your hands…?"

The answer to that question, although once again he already knew it, seemed so important to him. He was desperate to hear it. Either way, he _needed_ to hear it vocalized.

His father feigned thoughtfulness for a few seconds, a slender finger resting on his lips a bit, before he grinned and shook his head, "No, Yami…never."

"You truly…" Yami started, before his voice broke over the words for a second, making it fall a few decibels as he resumed, "disgrace everything that defines humanity…"

"I love you too, son," Samuel smiled at him with an indifferent, unruffled expression, leaning in to place his lips against Yami's.

Yami closed his eyes tightly, trying not to whimper in disgust and horror at the nasty, unwanted feel of those familiar lips against his, which made him form an idea in his mind that this action was only done by force, against his will. No one would ask him before this was done, no one would do it gently and certainly, no one would care if he wanted it or not.

Trying so desperately to hold onto the only thing that kept him from this pattern of thinking, of mistrust, he tried to recall the feel of Seto's warm embrace and tried to imagine Seto in this situation instead. But soon, he felt even more nauseated because he couldn't ever compare Seto's gentleness to this brutality he was currently going through. It was just so wrong on so many levels, he couldn't even begin to recall how good the sensations Seto aroused in him were. Because this was not the same. Not at all…

He never knew when his father left him alone. He was too busy trying to stay sane. When he reopened his eyes, he realized he had been crying, but he didn't let that stop him from raising his gaze up to the ropes from which he was almost free and renewing his efforts to get them completely loose.

His wrists were burning so badly and he felt that he was on the brink of passing out once more, but he couldn't allow himself. Not when he was almost done. It amused him a bit –and gladdened him ten times more— that the one time he decided to rebel, was the one time his father used rope instead of the handcuffs. Because if the handcuffs were what bound him to the bed right now, he would have had to really cut off his hands to get free, otherwise, he would have remained like that until his father decided his fate…

Finally, after what seemed like centuries, his right hand came out of the knot. He whimpered, half in pain and half in happiness, rewarding himself with a moment to catch his breath, before he raised his free hand to try and release the other one.

When he managed to do it, he lowered his arms, gasping loudly in pain when sharp pains shot throughout the length of his limbs, after they were moved from being placed in one position for such a long time. It took a while until normal sensation came back into them. He took a moment to gather his strength, before clutching at the mattress on the bed and the bed's frame, getting up with utmost difficulty.

Moving was an abject impossibility, which he was determined to test –and prove—the saying that stated that nothing was impossible. He moved to his closet and took out a pair of his baggy jeans, as well as some random, dark hoodie. He made sure not to even attempt staring into the mirror at his reflection. He didn't dare try dealing with that right now. He got dressed with painful slowness and by the time he was done, he was panting heavily with exertion, head spinning, threatening to make him lose contact with any coherence or consciousness.

He closed his eyes and tried to calm down. He needed to get this done and he needed to gather his strength, just this time.

A few minutes later, he felt that the pain and instability subsided for a little bit. He got up from where he had sunk to his knees tiredly and grabbed a jacket from the closet, tying it around his waist so that if he bled and it appeared on the fabric of his jeans, he wouldn't have to answer unwanted questions on the streets. He grabbed his wallet and placed some money inside it, before taking his sunglasses and slipping them on, cell phone and keys, pulling up the hood to cover half his face and the blood on it and then he turned to walk out of his room.

He made his way downstairs quietly, just in case someone was in the house still. He listened carefully, affirming with relief that he was alone when he didn't hear anything except the sound of his pained, ragged breaths.

It took him a while to get out of the house and out on the street. But it all passed by as a blur, as he focused all of his attention on not passing out yet. He stopped a cab, asking him in a low, calm tone to take him to the nearest hospital's ER.

Once there, he paid the man with the first bill his hand touched. He got out, not caring that the old man was calling him back telling him that this way over the fare. He walked into the building, the loud sounds and the noise making him feel like passing out more than ever now.

He stubbornly refused to give in to the temptation and he walked to the receptionist, a pretty middle-aged nurse with a fair complexion, green eyes and red hair pulled into a ponytail. An amused part of him noted that she looked redheaded enough to pass as a Weasley, but then he reprimanded himself to take this seriously because really, this wasn't the time to crack jokes in his head.

"How may I help you young man?" she asked with a small, hurried grin.

"I want…to admit myself… into the hospital here," he stuttered, wanting to sound calm without passing out in the process.

She nodded, "Where is your guardian?"

"Not here," he mumbled.

She gave another brief nod, before fumbling around on her desk for a little while, rambling off as though she was saying this for the millionth time today, "Well…I will need you then to start filling out these papers so that…"

He interrupted her, feeling that his restraint was about to break right now, "Look, ma'am…I cannot possibly describe to you how much pain I am in right now. My _guardian_ beat the shit out of me last night until I passed out and I am pretty sure I was sexually assaulted by him once again and I am praying that any trace or evidence of it did not go away yet…so please don't ask me to fill any stupid _paperwork_!"

At any other time, he would have been amused by the way her jaw dropped open in shock for a second, before she jumped up from her seat, calling one of the other nurses and asking her to bring closer one of the gurneys. However, he couldn't think of anything right now, except that every part of him was aching so badly, he couldn't stay standing anymore and so, he gave into the urge and sank down to his knees in front of the receptionist's desk.

A second later, he found her kneeling in front of him, pulling down his hood to reveal the nasty injury to the side of his head. He knew it was nasty because of the way she gasped and yelled for some help.

Once again, everything went by in a blur, which worried him a little because one moment he was on the ground in the ER's reception and the next, he was in a completely different place, lying on his back while many people swarmed the place around him.

"Don't you have anyone to call…?" a nurse asked him gently, raising his cell phone so he could see it.

He swallowed nervously, wondering if this was the right thing to do. Eventually, he decided that to hell with the right or wrong thing, and settled onto obeying the desperate, aching need with which his heart was beating and he nodded.

She gave him the phone and he searched for Seto's number, pressing the dial button when he found it.

There was only one ring, before Seto's desperate voice was heard on the other end, frantically asking, "Yami, are you okay…? Where've you be…"

Yami interrupted him, weakly, his voice wavering as he tried to get this done before passing out, "Seto, I'm at Domino Memorial Hospital and…err…I need you to…I need you to come over, because I think…I think it's over now…"

Yes, it must be over, right…? That was it. He was sure that the rape-kit, as well as the variety of bruises on his skin, was going to come up with enough evidence to get him away from all of this. He hoped it was enough and he wouldn't have to go through any more pain…

Seto was silent for a little while on the other end, before mumbling, "I'll be there in less than ten minutes…"

Yami lowered the phone, hanging up and handing it over to the nurse, muttering in his waning voice to her as his vision started to dim alarmingly, "When he gets here…please let him see me…okay?"

"What's his name, so I would know?" she asked, only her voice the one making sense in the huge jumble of words and urgent commands and sympathetic questions which he couldn't answer.

He swallowed, closing his eyes in pain as he was shifted onto one of the hospital beds in the room. He could feel himself losing awareness, so he muttered out Seto's name, hoping she heard him because after that, everything sank into blissful, pain-free darkness and he knew no more…

* * *

A/N: three more chapters to go ^_^

Thanks for reading.

Hathor…


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** :D :D xD I apologize for rating my stories M when there is no lemon there xD

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Thirteen**

The way from school to the hospital seemed as though it was a hundred of miles long. When in fact, all it took him to reach his destination was a time span no larger than seven minutes. Of course, amidst the hustle and bustle of the ER, his frustration increased tenfold when a redheaded nurse scolded him for being whiny and insistent and told him to wait.

Waiting was something he did not like to do, especially not now. However, he found himself forced to stay put and do just that…wait. After the first half an hour, he understood really, why the nurse had so coldly scolded him. The emergency room of any hospital wasn't a place he regularly went to, so, to see so many human beings in pain…he realized that even though worry was gnawing mercilessly at his insides, he had no choice but to accept that here…he wasn't the priority.

After only forty-five minutes, his reason and logic were rewarded, as the redheaded nurse once again returned to him, looking grimmer and more haggard than she did just minutes ago. He didn't even remotely feel like bashing her into next year like he had been planning to do just half an hour ago. He understood, really.

Even as he was thoroughly questioned when he said he was here for a Yami Motou, he didn't blame her. In fact, he was eternally grateful for the aggressive way with which she treated him initially when he asked to see Yami. He was vaguely reminded of a lioness defending one of her cubs, but again, he understood. Especially when she told him that she had just been with Yami a few minutes ago.

But after understanding why she was being so aggressive like that, worry started stabbing at his heart because she looked like she was about to be sick, for some reason, even if she was supposed to be trained enough to be able to handle seeing injured people. He realized, even before she explained to him that Yami had been taken into surgery right now, that Yami's condition seemed to be worse than he thought.

However, the worry did not make him forget to tell her of Yami's former dependence on drugs. He had already guessed that they needed to know such a thing and he had been right, because the moment she heard that, she excused herself and went rushing down the corridor, to return a few moments later to tell him that she was informing the doctor of what he just told her.

She had seen the worry appearing on his features and quickly assured him that Yami's injuries, although horrifyingly brutal, weren't life-threatening. At least, not after Yami came to them so quickly. It somehow didn't make him feel all that better, because he knew Yami was in a very rough shape.

So, he automatically tried to think of something else.

"Did anyone call the authorities about this? I am sure there is some procedure you must have followed," he asked, persistently pushing away the images of Yami when he had been in the middle of fighting the nasty withdrawal from his drug addiction. He didn't need to think of that right now. He didn't _want_ to.

However, she nodded, mumbling, "Someone should be on their way right now to his house and someone else should be on their way to his guardian's workplace to arrest him. We carried out a rape-kit procedure on Yami's…request, or what seemed like it when he first spoke to me," she paused a little, contemplating something for a bit, before adding, "We found semen and hair samples and enough damage to prove that whatever happened back at the kid's place was no where near consensual." She paused once more, that faraway look on her face resurfacing, before she mumbled, "I hope he is getting arrested right now."

Seto knew that that should be what was happening right now. Which meant that, once again, he had nothing better to do other than sitting there and waiting. He had hoped that if, by any stupid chance, the hospital did not send someone to arrest the son of a bitch even when they had such solid evidence…he thought perhaps he could busy himself and his thoughts with something other than the worry gnawing mercilessly at his insides for Yami.

Seeing his slightly pale features and the upset expression on his face, the nurse gave him a sympathetic smile that could have been more accurately described as a slight grimace, and tried to reassure, "I am sure he is going to come out of the OR in an hour…maybe less. They shouldn't take a lot of time, since they are just patching up an internal bleeding…"

The simple little phrase, 'just patching up', which seemed so puny to her, made Seto's stomach coil up in disturbingly tight knots. After making sure that Yami was really okay, he wanted to make sure to take him by the side and smack him, letting him know that it was not cool at all to put himself in so much pain. Somehow, he had known. He had known that this was Yami's original plan; to get himself all fucked over –literally and metaphorically—so that this time, the evidence couldn't be ignored. It was a smart plan, yes, but that did not mean that Seto could easily accept it as the only solution to this whole situation. No matter how much the bastard deserves being chucked into a dark cell underground and left to suffer there till death came and claimed him…it just didn't justify one second of Yami's pain.

He sighed and leaned forward in his seat, burying his face into his hands. He had been sitting there for another half an hour after the nurse left him. Every time any doctor passed by, he would look up, hoping that perhaps this was the one in charge of Yami.

When Téa arrived, breathless and cheeks flushed with worry and the exertion of trying to cover up for her own post at school and Seto's, she found him in that exact position. As she approached, he once again raised his head to stare in her general direction, hopeful that this time, someone was going to update him on Yami's condition.

When he saw who it was though, he sighed and looked away once again, waiting till she took a seat beside him until he told her what he had been told just minutes ago.

She went silent for a while. Seto sensed that, just like him, she wasn't able to really gather her wits long enough to form a coherent sentence. Obviously, the situation had never been bad enough to actually require any surgical interference.

Finally, it wasn't too long after her arrival that finally, someone came out to give them any update on Yami. Halfway through it, Téa had to excuse herself and walk away because she couldn't hear the ridiculously vivid descriptions of the various injuries Yami acquired. Seto bemusedly, in dark morbidity, wondered why doctors seemed so fond of giving so much detail… was it something they learnt in school?

His distracted thoughts were pulled together once more when he asked where Yami was. Getting proper directions from the middle-aged doctor who was speaking to him, he walked over to Téa, who was barely able to keep herself from being sick, but unable to halt the twin tears that raced towards her delicate chin. He took her wrist in her hand and led the way to where the man described the room's location.

If it wasn't for the fact that he was concerned the most about seeing Yami at the moment and making sure he was okay, he would have had enough time to gape in mortification at the fact that Yami was placed in one of those rooms in the recovery ward, with _someone else_. 'Normally', it would have been unacceptable and someone would have paid dearly for this, but really…nothing about Yami's still body lying in the bed that seemed too huge for him, was normal. There was nothing ordinary about him lying so passive as the nurse adjusted the IV buried into his hand.

So, for now, he mirrored Téa's footsteps towards the bed, for once not thinking of how much the service could be improved. Téa took Yami's right side and he took his left as they both stared down at him and as the nurse muttered, "He should come to an hour or two from now. Use the button at the side there to call me when that happens."

Seto thought he should tell her that he wanted Yami to be moved somewhere else, all by himself, but his entire attention was focused on Yami so he couldn't gather himself enough to try and say anything yet. His hand automatically rose up and reached for Yami's. Gently, he held it, careful not to IV line delicately perched in Yami's blood vessels, providing him with what made the pain more bearable.

Téa's hand was hovering above Yami's face, but she paused just as she was about to touch it. However, seeing the way it was too pale and the scattered bruises on his cheek as well as the long, shallow cut on it, she changed her mind and instead settled onto gently patting the scattered locks of blonde hair, prevented from falling onto Yami's face by the bandages that were wrapped around his forehead.

Seto swallowed and looked away from Téa's hand, only to meet her eyes. He knew…that the look in her eyes…the way she looked so overwhelmed, horrified, sad and sympathetic, yet hopeful and relieved…he knew that that look mirrored his own.

This was not how he had wanted this whole mess to end. He did not want it to come to having Yami looking so broken on the hospital bed. And he never wanted him to feel the pain he would certainly feel the moment he woke up.

Yet…somehow, it was all right. Yami may look so broken now, but in everyone's eyes, he was stronger than all of them combined to have survived what he survived. And the pain may be too much to bear without shedding tears and making sounds of pain…but it was bearable, because then Yami would know after that…he was free. Finally, thankfully, he was free.

Seto, although he did not feel like it, sensed the corners of his lips curling ever-so-slightly in calm, slightly-bitter smile, which was so slight and feeble that, to onlookers, may have been thought of as a simple, serene expression. His gaze dropped away from Téa's and he studied Yami's face intently, looking beyond the bruises and the paleness. And there…he saw peace.

* * *

True to the nurse's words, Yami started stirring about two and a half hours later. Seto was sitting on the edge of the bed, still on Yami's left side, while Téa sat in the chair on the opposite side. Little words were exchanged between them, because words seemed too…unsuitable in the silent, dreadful, anticipation-infested atmosphere inside the recovery ward. Whatever communication was done was mostly through silent stares and facial expressions.

It amused Seto how much he and Téa worked so synergistically together. Perhaps the people picking the head students in school really knew what they were doing. They really made a good team. Between them, their hands, single words and the air around them itself, worked on trying to lull Yami out of his comatose state. For the past two hours, it seemed as though the only thing that mattered was to bring Yami back to them and to see his eyes opening.

And as Seto felt the very slight, almost imperceptible, twitch of Yami's little finger in his hand, the brunet straightened and as if on cue, Téa did the same. Two pairs of blue eyes met very briefly for just a second and in the short-lived stare they shared, Seto told Téa what she needed to do the most right now.

And he wasn't disappointed, as Téa got up from her chair gracefully, leaning down to very, very gently brush her lips against Yami's bandaged forehead, giving his right hand the smallest squeeze, before letting go and walking out, leaving them alone.

Seto focused every bit of his attention on Yami, who, in response to Téa's sweet, friendly touch, started renewing his efforts to wake up. The little twitch Seto felt now developed into a definite, unmistakable curling of the rest of Yami's fingers around the brunet's white hand, accompanied by the barest of sounds, a small groan of discomfort. Seto made sure to squeeze Yami's hand which had moved, trying to make sure that Yami knew that once he opened his eyes, he would see a friendly face. The gesture had its intended effect. Yami seemed to pause ever-so-slightly and, as his crimson eyes slid open just a fraction, his bandaged head turned to Seto's general direction.

The brunet smiled gently and made sure he was in Yami's line of vision. He tried to put in as much warmth into it as he could, and he triumphantly noticed that again, it seemed to bring about the desired result, as the corners of Yami's mouth twitched slightly in a faint smile.

"Hey you…" Seto spoke in a whisper, mindful of the nasty concussion the effects of which Yami must be dealing with at that moment. He leaned down slightly so he could kiss the left side of the top of Yami's hand, making sure never to jostle the IV.

Yami's eyes slid shut for a few seconds, and Seto patiently waited for them to open once again, and when they did, they were glittering, but in a way Seto hadn't seen on them yet before. Instead of glittering with tears, the crimson orbs shone with new light of hope that put to rest Seto's unease that perhaps all the pain Yami was suffering right now was not worth it.

"You scared me," Seto commented, his free hand brushing a stray lock of golden hair away from Yami's cheek, from where it had fallen when his boyfriend turned his head while waking up.

He was so glad to feel Yami's hand tightening ever-so-slightly around his fingers. He was even more delighted to hear him speak, even if it was as low as the whisper of the wind to the world at an early summer morning. "Got messy. Sorry about that."

"Got messy?" Seto asked with a slight chuckle, shaking his head lightly and leaning closer to place a small kiss on Yami's cheek, before whispering in his ear, trying to lighten up the mood, "You're still as gorgeous as ever. So nope, not so messy…"

"Easy for you to say…" Yami, voice getting stronger, muttered tiredly. Seto drew back to stare at him, so he added, grimacing in discomfort, "I feel like a huge, throbbing mass of pain…"

Seto felt his insides churning with anger slightly, as he recalled the detailed account he had been given regarding Yami's injuries, but didn't let it show. Instead he kissed Yami on the cheek once again and drew back to press on the call-nurse button beside the bed. "Well… that's a bit expected," he mumbled, staring at the dazed expression on Yami's face, not knowing if it was because of the concussion, or if it was because of the pain.

There was silence for a few moments, in which Yami's eyes closed for a bit, a blank expression surfacing on his face. Seto swallowed thickly, knowing where and when he had seen this look on Yami before.

Quickly, he grabbed Yami's hand giving it a small squeeze. Yami's eyes opened once again, looking at him in a pained, questioning way, so he firmly stated, "You don't have to do this so silently anymore, Yami."

Yami looked at him for a few more moments, as though unable to comprehend what he was told, before his brows furrowed in discomfort and he whimpered in low tones, "It hurts…"

"And that gives you more of a reason to be as noisy as you want to be," Seto reassured, the backs of his fingers gently caressing the skin on Yami's cheek.

Yami once again briefly closed his eyes, muttering between small gasps of pain, "I don't like being noisy…"

The nurse chose that moment, while Seto was rolling his eyes at Yami's stupid stubbornness, to enter. She was quickly followed by the same resident doctor who Seto had spoken to outside in the ER before he came into the room. Oh great, more medical details, Seto dully thought as the man directed all of his attention to Yami, while the nurse went about fussing over him and checking his vitals.

"Hello Yami," the man said in his stupid, cheerful tone. Seto wanted to grab him and take him by the side somewhere to smack him around and ask him what was so fucking happy about the whole situation. However, he kept quiet, scolding himself for his impatience in his mind as the older man resumed, "I'm Dr. Cormack, and I am in charge of you during your stay here with us."

Yami nodded slowly, careful not to show whether he trusted the man or not.

Not the least but affected by Yami's lack of interested interaction with him, Dr. Cormack resumed speaking in his cheerful tone, approaching the foot of the bed and picking up a clipboard from where it was hanging on the small table, "I understand you probably feel like I am the worst physician in the entire world, considering that you shouldn't be feeling this sober right now…"

Seto watched Yami's expressions, seeing that indeed, Yami was thinking of that exactly.

"But I am sorry we had to give you a much lesser dose of morphine than usual," the older man said, a regretful, yet firm, tone overpowering his words. Understanding flashed in Yami's eyes, just as Dr. Cormack resumed, "We were told by Mr. Kaiba of your former dependence on opium drugs, and if we use a higher dose than this, I am afraid it will send you back to square one, regarding that addiction."

Seto shifted in discomfort, figuratively feeling a small bit of the pain Yami must be enduring at the moment, and not liking it the least bit. It made him so angry…that even now, even when Yami went through so much to avoid any more problems caused by that addiction forced on him without his consent, it still made him suffer so badly.

Yami, however, when Dr. Cormack paused, waiting for him to react, gave a curt little nod and mumbled, "'Tis okay. I understand."

"I repeat, Yami, I am very sorry, but I trust you are more than capable of handling this," Dr. Cormack firmly assured.

Seto wanted to kick him out right then and there, because really, Yami has been handling so much on his own and proved to be capable of doing so, for so long. He didn't want Yami to handle anything more than this.

He was literally seeing red about all of this, he missed the point where the older man started repeating to Yami the same, detailed description of what was done to his body. However, he became aware of what was going on once more when Yami's hold on his tightened ever-so-slightly and he spoke, interrupting the doctor, "I…I don't want to hear all of this."

Seto silently turned his gaze to Dr. Cormack who, to his slight surprise, seemed relieved.

"Oh thank God…" the man said, depositing the clipboard on the tiny table at the foot of the bed once again, before moving back, away from the bed again, so he could ask, "Well then…do you want to ask anything? I'll try to answer to the best of my ability."

Yami's eyes flickered over to Seto briefly, giving the brunet insight on the turmoil raging inside him, which was evident in his tone when he once again turned to the man and asked what Seto was expecting him to ask, "What…happens now? Did you get any evidence against…against him?"

There was no doubt as to who the 'him' was, and Dr. Cormack thankfully picked up on that quite easily. "Yes, Yami. We have managed to obtain a semen sample, as well as traces of skin tissue from your fingernails. I am pretty sure there was more evidence at your house, which was considered a crime scene by the police the moment we called them." Yami was silent for a long time to follow after Dr. Cormack's reassurance.

Seto's hand automatically tightened around Yami's, trying to ease the grief that was so overwhelming, it managed to break through the unbeatable fortress of the expressionless façade Yami had perfected. The tanned skin was too pale, paler than usual and obviously it was not because of the pain only. The crimson eyes, although clouded with pain and slight drowsiness, were tinged with the unmistakable traces of fear, regret and torment… the sight was too devastating…

"Yami, I want you not to bother yourself with thinking about…your guardian anymore," Dr. Cormack's voice was firm this time. Yami blinked and his vision cleared from the anguish that overtook it for a bit, as a questioning expression surfaced. "He has been apprehended by the police. The evidence we obtained and sent to the crime lab is solid. Nothing can ensure that he will be coming out of this. And that is why, I need you to focus on trying to recover instead of worrying whether that monster will get what he deserves or not. Okay?"

The words were true and right, Seto decided, looking at Yami to make sure he was agreeing as well. Yami's face was once again put behind that mask of blankness, even as he nodded curtly.

"Alright then," Dr. Cormack said, nodding in response to Yami's agreement. "I will be checking on you twice a day to make sure you're keeping your word. I want you out of here as soon as possible. if everything goes as planned, you should be released within the week."

Yami's face seemed to lighten up ever-so-slightly at the words, but Seto missed it as he disgustedly asked, "I suppose I can have Yami moved from this…place, to a private room somewhere…?"

Taken aback by Seto's sudden and unexpected question, Dr. Cormack stared in silence for a while, before quickly saying, just as Yami glared at Seto, "Of course… I'll make sure it's seen to it as soon as possible, Mr. Kaiba…"

After asking Yami once again to solely focus on recovering, Dr. Cormack turned and left the room, followed closely by the nurse, who fussed some more over Yami, before leaving. When they were alone once again, Seto turned to Yami and raised an eyebrow when he found him glaring.

"Perhaps I _like it_ here," Yami protested.

"No you don't…" Seto said, leaning down to put a small kiss on Yami's cheek. Before Yami could protest again, he said, "Téa's outside…would you like me to bring her in?"

Eagerly, Yami nodded. Seto smiled and went to call their friend, who, the moment she walked in, immediately headed towards the bed to give Yami the gentlest of hugs. Seto assumed his place on the chair beside the bed, watching as Yami raised his arm to return the gesture.

At that moment, it seemed as though everything was quite alright and nothing would go wrong ever again.

* * *

The next day's morning, Yami woke up to the sound of his room's door opening and closing once again. He blinked several time, trying to clear his blurry vision and breathe around the stabbing pain in his midsection. When he was almost successful in doing that, he heard Téa's familiar voice, calling out to him, "Morning sleepyhead!"

Around the pained grimace he had no choice but to let appear on his features, he smiled at her and opened his eyes to meet her blue ones, jokingly replying, "C'mon…cut me some slack, I _deserve_ some sleep."

Her grin widened, and as she moved to the window of the spacious room he was moved to last night to open it and sunlight in, Yami thought her smile was giving the whole room its own, special sunlight. "Yep, that you deserve alright," she commented, before sitting down on the edge of his bed. His own smile widened as she stared at him, "How are you feeling now?"

"Fine," he lied. Truth was, he felt no better than he did last night. Gnawing, maddening pain rushing through his entire body ceaselessly, and without mercy. He was not going to tell her that, though.

However, he blinked in surprise when she looked at him in exasperation, "You are such a terrible liar, Yami."

"Thank you, Téa…" he sarcastically replied.

She giggled, "It's okay…really, to tell me that you are not fine. It'll help."

"Nah, it won't. It'll make you feel bad and you won't be able to do anything," Yami remarked, shifting slightly so he could be lying down in a more upright and, hopefully, more comfortable position.

"Yami…it's futile to argue with me. I may not be able to help…but to have someone listening…always helps," Téa calmly said, taking her backpack off her back and putting it on her lap. "You cannot say that I am not right about that," she added, poking him on the nose with her index finger. Yami gave her a mock affronted look so she laughed and took out a small plastic box from her bag, "I made you something to eat. Hospital food tastes like crap, if I remember correctly."

He nodded in agreement but, even though he would have very much liked to dig into the light, fluffy crepes whose smell mingled richly with that of the blueberry jam added to them, he narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "Are you sure I should be eating anything right now? I mean…it looks good enough I can eat all of it along with the box but…" he paused slightly when she laughed at the expression, before adding, "I wouldn't like to add being sick to the list of things that constitute why I am so miserable right now…"

Téa seemed as though she was about to argue, but then she paused thoughtfully for a few moments before grumbling, "Aww…damn, I knew I should not have snuck in here before meeting Dr. Cormack first…" Yami watched her in silence as she got up off the bed, and walked to the door. "I'm going to ask someone…stay here."

"Won't go anywhere," he sarcastically replied.

She gave another amused, sympathetic laugh before shaking her head and leaving the room in search for the nurse or Dr. Cormack.

He stared at the door after her for a while, contemplating the way everything seemed surreal. Something…wasn't right. Was it really so simple? It couldn't be, right?

He sighed and reprimanded himself for his negative way of thinking. _Stop it_, he said in his mind. All is fine now, he decided. It really was over and his father was safely locked away until he, Yami, gave his sentence to the police later on today. Nothing could harm him anymore.

Satisfied with the reassurance he gave himself, Yami smiled slightly and settled into the bed, closing his eyes. All he had to do now, was savor Téa's visit, laughing with her when she came back while they waited for Seto who had to be threatened to be kicked out by the hospital's security at two in the morning last night if he did not leave willingly. All was fine.

His peaceful thoughts were interrupted when the door opened once again. He didn't open his eyes, but his smile widened as he asked, "So… Dr. Cormack didn't get mad you snuck in here, did he?"

There was complete silence in the room for a few seconds. Then his eyes shot open when he heard the distinct unmistakable sound of the room's key being turned in the lock, isolating the room from the rest of the hospital. He had opened his mouth to ask why she was shutting the door, when the words died at his lips at what he saw.

* * *

Seto knew he should not have left yesterday even if he was threatened with Japan's armed forces itself. Something had gone amiss when he was away. He noticed it the moment he saw Téa who had been sitting with Yami in his room. The look on her face itself, even before she drew him sideways when a nurse came in to check on Yami, told the brunet that something went horridly wrong.

Yami was too withdrawn…which was seriously saying something, since he was always withdrawn, but this…the way he was avoiding everyone's eyes and flinched at the smallest of sounds…no, that was not normal at all. Something was wrong, Seto repeated to himself over and over again.

Perhaps Yami was worried…

Seto managed to stay still and stop fidgeting only when he managed to convince himself that that must be it. Yami must be nervous about giving the police his statement and that was why he was so quiet. That must be it.

He studiously pushed away the voice that screamed at him that it was more than just that. He had trouble doing so, however, especially when Yami recoiled when he tried to hold his hand in reassurance, crimson eyes not rising to meet his, fixed unblinkingly and with so much resolve on the pattern of the blanket on the bed.

He almost sighed out in relief when he saw two tall men who seemed to be in their late thirties, dressed professionally, walk into Yami's room, announcing that they were here to take Yami's statement against his father. He was allowed to stay, if Yami wanted him to, of course, he was told.

He was preparing himself to sit down beside Yami on the bed when he stared in shock and hurt and confusion when Yami said, "No…" he just kept staring in disbelief at Yami, wondering what the hell was going on, when Yami finally met his eyes for the first time today and added, "Go, Seto…please."

And Seto had no choice whatsoever but to turn around and leave.

He was expecting the two men to stay for over an hour or maybe two. So was Téa…

However, they came out less than fifteen minutes after Seto left the room.

Bewildered, both Téa and Seto rose to their feet, "What…? You're done…?" Téa asked, confused.

Seto kept silent for now, studying the faces of the two men, who, to his surprise, seemed just as confused as he and Téa were.

"Miss. Gardner, I have no idea what is going on, but Mr. Motou just refused to give us his statement," one of the two told them, a puzzled expression domination his features.

"What?!" Seto exclaimed.

"He said that he was attacked on his way to school…he doesn't know who his attackers are and he said that his father had nothing to do with all of this…" the other one told them, shrugging.

Seto stared at them in confusion for a few seconds; what? No, really…_what_?! This can't be right. Yami wouldn't…after all he went through, he would never waste a chance like this at all…what was happening? He blinked suddenly and realization dawned on him.

"Stay here for a few minutes…this is all…just wrong!" Seto told the two men.

"You think…" Téa started, a thoughtful expression in her eyes.

"Yes…" Seto said, turning to the door. He paused for a second, before turning the knob, walking inside the room and closing it behind him.

* * *

A/N: :D :D thanks for reading *rofling* I'm so sorry for rating this as M ^_^ XD when it obviously has no lemon. :D

Hathor…


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N:** in my defense there was a power-cut yesterday. xD sorry for the delay.

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Fourteen**

Seto had never known a day more stressful than this one.

It seemed like a terrible understatement, the word 'stressful' was. Because surely, 'stressful' had been an understatement back when Seto was a witness to the horrors of Yami's withdrawal. Now, after seeing Téa's apprehension at the start of the day, after seeing for himself the reason for it, after getting kicked out of the room by Yami and after the atrocity Yami told the two police elements…now he really thought that Yami's withdrawal was not even near stressful, because definitely, it was downright traumatic, to think that Yami had been beaten by his monster of a father to the brink of death, only for the kid to just chicken out in the last moment…

It was unacceptable. It just did not make sense. The idea itself… 'Yami chickening out'… it made no sense to him. Yami had no reason whatsoever to back out now. He had knowingly walked to his father's clutches after having the chance of staying out of harm's way, just to get this done and over with. He had endured hell, would have died, to put the man who made him suffer for so long, behind bars. This was Yami's chance to do that…to be free once and for all. There was no reason at all to stop him.

And so, Seto was convinced that Yami, although he was the one to lie and say that someone else other than his father did it, had absolutely no say in the matter. But the brunet was aware that it had be something drastic to actually make Yami change his mind about reporting the abuse to the authorities. Whatever changed overnight…it had to be something Yami was not willing to risk.

His suspicions were proven correct when he barged into the room, ignoring the need for silence. He could literally smell the fear, regret and bitterness in the sterile air of the overly-white room. He felt his chest constricting slightly when the whole room ceased to exist and only the person sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at small, bare feet, mattered.

In the past two or so months Seto had known Yami for what he really was… never had he looked as broken as he looked now. It was horrifying to think that Yami was probably was in his worst situation in those two eventful months that passed. He swallowed and walked towards the bed, where Yami was sitting.

He stood before Yami in silence, not doing anything but staring at the huddled form that shivered with what he wasn't sure if it was pain or fear. He knew Yami was aware of his presence, but he still didn't bring himself to speak yet. So many doubts were swirling in his mind. What if Yami refused to listen to reason? What if Seto couldn't change his mind? What if it was not possible for anyone to change Yami's mind…?

When he realized that more than two minutes passed with him standing this way, and that Yami was not about to look up at him, he knew he had to speak up.

"Not going to look at me, are you?" he asked. Yami did not acknowledge his statement except by ceasing all movement, even if it was as imperceptible as the soft trembling that had been running throughout his entire, slight frame. Seto sighed, raising a hand to rub his eyes tiredly, before sitting down beside Yami on the bed. He could feel the tense way in which Yami's body was coiled like a spring ready to snap at any second. "Are you going to explain the sudden attack of stupidity that seems to be wreaking havoc on you right now?"

He almost sighed once again in frustration at the utter silence that answered him.

"I am not allowing you to do this, Yami…" he stated flatly, turning his head to look at Yami's unreadable profile from that angle. "I will stay here all day if I have to. I told those two men not to leave, because I am going to knock some sense back into you. And we're already in a hospital, so if I have to get physical, I will…"

At that, Yami showed signs of life.

He looked up, eyes cold and expressionless. Seto drew a quick, silent breath at the sight. Last time he saw that expression was when he confronted Yami in the gym about what he heard over the phone. With a sense of apprehension, Seto realized that Yami had withdrawn into himself just like that time…he prayed that…unlike that time, Yami wouldn't do anything stupid.

He shivered ever-so-slightly when Yami backed up the hostility in his gaze and on his features, by snapping in cold, cold anger, "Even you, Seto? I am sorry to tell you that physical threats do not faze me in the least." And he turned away, going back to ignoring the brunet as though he was an unfriendly stranger who came to shatter his peace of mind.

Seto stared at him in shock for just a few seconds, before his own pride and stubbornness kicked in, "Oh no, I know physical threats do not come up with any results with you. You cannot deny, however, that some sort of threat actually brought this about."

Yami resumed staring away, ignoring him.

Seto wouldn't have any of that. He got up and did not hesitate to grab Yami by his upper arm, jerking him slightly, not giving regard to the gasp of surprise that escaped the slighter, injured form, asking, "Am I right, Yami?"

"Let me go, Seto, you're not going to make me change my mind," Yami hissed at him, managing to control the pain Seto's actions brought him, face once again returning to the cold anger from before.

"Answer me, Yami. Am I right?" Seto insisted, Yami's anger not affecting him as much as the possibility of failure that faced their foolproof plan, did. He glared angrily, his other hand rising to grab Yami by the chin, tilting his face up so that their eyes met, "Don't act like a coward, Yami…you are _not_ a coward. Don't expect me to believe that."

"How the fuck do you know it's an act?" Yami spat out in anger, eyes burning up lividly. "How do you know I am not really just a coward who cannot gather the courage to take a step forward and actually change the crap going on around him?"

"Because if you were strong enough to beat a heroin addiction by yourself in less than two weeks, then fuck, you are not a coward and fear is not what's stopping you from ending this, Yami." Seto was livid. How could Yami say that about himself? Didn't he understand how…how difficult and impossible what he had done was? He glared, "Do not give me that stupid crap about you being cowardly. I don't give a flying fuck what you think of yourself right now…you _can_ and _will_ say the truth to those two out there."

"I do not want to," Yami firmly said, removing his face from Seto's hold and looking away determinedly.

Seto let him go, moving back slightly. He stared in shock and disbelief. This was atrocious…to come this far, only to return back to square one because of something like this? No…

"What happened Yami?" he asked.

"Nothing happened," Yami replied in a whisper.

"Don't tell me that nothing happened. Do not expect me to believe that in a split second you decided you _liked_ what that monster was doing to you," Seto snapped. He was walking on thin ice, with what he was saying…but unfortunately, there was nothing else he could do except being harsh. Yami needed this harshness right now…

And just as he expected…his words were enough to impact Yami deep enough to draw him out of that state of apathetic hostility and aggressive attitude. It was painful to see Yami's shocked, petrified expression for the long moment to follow, in which the slight, frail form barely moved save for the small twitch of slender fingers as though in shock and protest to the suggestion Seto's words implied.

The moment of silence was broken so fast, Seto didn't even realize what had happened, until a while after Yami hauled himself at him, pushing him back with strength Seto never expected of the body that, just less than a day ago, was under a surgeon's scalpel. He blinked in surprise and stared up into the anguished pair of crimson eyes that swam under a sheen of horrified, disbelieving tears, one of which slipped out of the wide orbs to fall onto Seto's cheek. His body lay passive under Yami's, whose fingers were tightly clenched around his wrists, pinning them onto the bed with power born of the offense their owner was suffering.

Once again, silence hung over the room, broken a second after the sudden commotion with Yami's soft, unwilling sob.

"No!" he whispered, voice breaking over the small word. He blinked and once again, Seto felt the hot, somewhat shocking impact of another lonesome tear landing on his face. He did not know what made the sensation so disturbing; was it the unfamiliarity of it? Or was it the pain that seemed to amplify the hotness of the salty teardrop? He didn't know, and had no chance to dwell on it because Yami hissed at him in frightened anger, "Don't say stuff like that! Don't even dare suggest…that I… I enjoyed any second of my life with him for the past twelve years…"

Seto swallowed thickly against the sorrow that felt as though something was pressing on his chest and preventing his lungs for expanding for air. He blinked when he felt pressure building up behind his own eyes and the next moment felt the unfamiliar prickle of his own tears collecting in the corners of his eyes. He stared through blurry vision into Yami's desperate eyes, saying in a low voice, "Then why do you want to return back to that life, Yami…?"

Yami's fingers tightened painfully and Seto did not know if it was intended, or if it was involuntary. Once again, he did not dwell too much on it when Yami once again whispered in that broken, horrified voice, "Stop it…stop saying these terrible things!"

"If what I am saying is not the truth, then why are you doing this? You have the chance to end it…do so! The only explanation for what you're doing…is that either you want to go back to that monster," he forced himself to continue with the same harsh tone even though Yami's tears were now rolling down his face unchecked, unchallenged. "Or something happened between yesterday and today to make you change your mind about all of it."

Yami's tears did not stop as he stared in fear down at Seto, speechless with the terror of the suggestion.

"Tell me…You've been too silent, Yami. This is not the right time to stay silent," Seto said in a low voice. He had to convince Yami not to let this chance go no matter what. And to do so, he needed to find out who changed Yami's mind and consequently, he needed to know what exactly that was so precious at stake that, in comparison to it, Yami preferred going back home to the long, horrifying hours of abuse and fear. "Tell me and I promise you we will find a way out of whatever it is you're afraid of. I promise you we will find a way…not this. Your silence won't solve anything."

Yami did not say anything still. He was still crying in silence, as though Seto's words had hurt him so much, he could no longer form coherent sentences. He could no longer form coherent words and it seemed that with Seto's words, the anger and desperation that fueled the unnatural strength that seemed to reverberate through Yami's body, seemed to ebb away. Seto felt Yami's death grip loosening around his wrists, allowing circulation flow through them once again.

It came as no surprise, when Yami's form convulsed ever-so-slightly above him when a sob managed to break free through his lips, before Seto found him growing weaker, his head falling to rest on the brunet's shoulder, his body previously pulled taut and rigid with anxiety, sadness, anger and disbelief, now draped over his own limp and shivering with exhaustion and shock.

The sobs continued for a while. Seto let Yami bring it all out, because if he interrupted now, if he made the wrong move of trying to stop him, Yami might retreat once again just when he managed to get a response out of him. Seto knew that right after this breakdown, Yami will trust him on it that he whatever it is that happened, Seto will be able to make it right.

He _had_ to make it right…there was no other choice.

When Yami started speaking again, Seto was still lying under his shaking body, but had lowered his arms to wrap them gently around the slight form, offering whatever comfort he could at the moment. He forced himself not to do anything when Yami's voice, breaking over the hitches catching in his chest and the sobs he couldn't control, was heard…

"I can't… I can't let it happen…" he said.

"What, Yami? What is it that you cannot let happen?" Seto insisted. He kept his arms securely wrapped around Yami, as though trying to protect him from the inner demons that scared him so much, as though by tightening his hold some more on him, he would manage to banish the numerous skeletons hiding in Yami's closet, silencing him from voicing out his protest against what was happening with him.

At Seto's question, Yami stiffened ever-so-slightly, making Seto's heart skip a beat in panic that he may have caused Yami to retread once again. However, a few moments later, he swallowed and forgot all about it when Yami raised his head, so that his eyes, so anguished and pained it tore Seto apart, to meet the brunet's concerned, understanding blue orbs.

"It was stupid…I should never have done this…" he whispered, horror painting every pore of his being. Before Seto could even get the chance to ask what Yami meant, the crimson eyes were shut tightly in despair, as their owner continued, "To think I would ever get away from him…I'll never ever be free…"

Seto released a breath he did not know he had been trapping in his lungs. "Oh Yami…" he whispered compassionately, bringing a hand down to wipe away at Yami's tears. He gently and slowly, trying to avoid causing any pain, shifted so that he placed Yami on the bed, and he was on top of him, slightly to the side as he whispered when Yami opened his eyes to stare in pain at him, "You're right… you won't ever get over this. But that doesn't mean you can't try…it doesn't mean you have to go back there."

"You don't understand," Yami shook his head, blinking and once again, the tears Seto had removed, slid down his ashen, pain-pinched, miserable features.

Seto stared at him; he misunderstood what exactly? That should be what Yami meant, right? Because, as far as Seto knew and cared about, Samuel was locked up in some police station, awaiting Yami's statement, so he could be transferred later on to some other, less-temporary prison awaiting a trial he will never come out of innocent. How then, was he still controlling Yami's life?

He suddenly recalled Yami telling him something once…

"_I told you…I have to have some evidence when I speak to someone. You have no idea how deep my dad's relations go. He will bribe the police if he had to."_

Yami was completely silent. He did not answer Seto's partly understanding, partly horrified and worried look except by blinking once more to let the tears fall again.

"Yami…someone…was here to threaten you?" he asked quietly, suddenly feeling stupid for not assigning someone to stay on guard in front of Yami's room all the time.

Slowly, as though afraid of the possibility that admitting it would mean a worse predicament than this, Yami nodded.

Seto swore and straightened to sit on the edge of the bed, watching Yami with a guilty look on his face. How could he have missed it? How could he have let Yami go through the horror of feeling as though he had gone through all that pain last night, for nothing? Not even for nothing…but for even worse treatment when, supposedly, his father managed to get out of all of this because he threatened his son into keeping quiet… _You should have told me,_ would have been the first thing he wanted to say to Yami, but he knew he didn't want to add to Yami's misery right now. In fact, he didn't think he wanted to give himself the right to tell Yami that his fears had no basis. Because what did he offer Yami as proof to say otherwise? Those words needed proof…he offered Yami none…

"Fuck…" was what he said, though. He got up, keeping his back to the bed and trying to calm down. He couldn't believe this… he couldn't believe he had been so stupid to forget something like that. He couldn't believe that there could still be more suffering to be dished out at Yami after all this…and most importantly, he couldn't believe that…no matter what he did, Yami would never feel completely safe. It just wasn't possible to reassure him that no one could get to him anymore. Because even if he, Seto, promised him that… there was nothing to ensure it. At least, not from Yami's perspective.

"I'm sorry," he heard Yami whimper from the bed and turned to see that he had pushed himself up using his elbows so that he was now in a more upright position.

Seto stared at Yami, half sprawled the way he was on the bed, staring at him with tired, tearful, childlike crimson eyes. He swore under his breath again, the sight suddenly reminding him of how innocent Yami truly was in all this. Innocent because he did not deserve any of what was going on. Innocent because he never did anything wrong enough to go through all of this. Innocent for not experiencing anything other than pain and sorrow…never given a sample of happiness or reprieve or pleasure. He knew nothing but what was going on right now. Hope meant disappointment. Trust meant betrayal. Protest meant more pain and humiliation.

"What are you saying sorry for?" Seto snapped.

At the harsh tone, Yami flinched and closed his eyes once more, sitting upright on the edge of the bed once again. He said nothing. He seemed to be on his way to shutting himself down completely to everything around him.

Seto couldn't allow that.

"What happened, Yami…? Tell me, and I will fix it. I _will_," Seto said determinedly, after crossing the distance to the bed in a flash. He sat down beside Yami and held one of his hands, while the other hand rose up to tilt Yami's face towards him. "What happened? Tell me everything," he added when he was sure he was looking Yami straight in the eyes.

Yami bit his lip for a second in hesitation, before drawing nearer to Seto and burying his face in the brunet's shoulder. Seto wrapped his arm instinctively around Yami, pulling him close and offering as much support as he could. He waited until Yami's ragged breathing died down to a gentle, calm rhythm.

"Téa went…to ask…if I could eat what she had brought over…" he started, his voice soft and breaking over words slightly. "When the door opened once again, I thought she had come back but it was not Téa."

Seto did not interrupt but waited till Yami once again gathered himself to speak once again in that detached, monotonous voice he managed to muster.

"It was dad's assistant at work… he came here to…to tell me that if I press charges, I should keep in mind while doing it, that dad has a lot of people who can very easily have an overly-friendly chat with Téa…" he said and Seto's eyes widened at the words. "I…can't risk Téa's safety," Yami added in a quiet voice. "I can't force someone else to suffer because of me…"

"You shouldn't have to suffer to protect others," Seto snapped. Yami blinked, moved back a bit and stared at him in shock. Seto knew that what he said wasn't exactly selfless…but there was a good reason why this selflessness was the most sensible option right now…in Yami's condition. "Why should you suffer to protect others when no one did anything to help you?"

"No!" Yami snapped back at him, glaring and plaintively blinking tears from his eyes. He jabbed his index finger against Seto's chest, resuming, "No, I refuse to think with that mentality. What? No one helped me, hence I help no one? Don't ever ask me to think like that."

"I am not letting you go back there just because of that stupid threat," Seto glared.

"Then what do you suggest I do?" Yami half-yelled at him. He then lowered his voice, hissing in frustration, "It's either me, or her…and I'd pick her over myself any given day, Seto…"

"It doesn't have to be you and it doesn't have to be her," Seto vehemently told him. Yami stared at him in silence and that sense of surrendered despair and hopelessness that made Seto so angry. The brunet barely held himself in check, as he said, "We'll get the police to offer protection…"

"The police won't offer shit, Seto…" Yami told him, bitterly amused. "In fact, I think dad already thought of that. So that if Téa is protected by the police…it will be actually someone from the police who will do what they will to her."

"Fine, I'll get my own personal, hand-picked security to guard her," Seto countered.

"You don't get it…why should she have to suffer having her freedom taken away from her like that?"

"Yes, I don't get it…I don't get why you want to take Téa's decision for her. Why don't we just ask _her_ what _she_ thinks of all this?" Seto said while getting up, untangling himself with more harshness than he meant, from Yami, who meant to stop him by getting up and trying to follow after, but Seto did not allow him a chance, opening the room's door quickly before Yami could even take one step closer. "Téa, come here a second please," he said, calling to her as she stood outside.

A second or two later, Téa walked into the room, gasping slightly when she saw Yami standing, barely able to keep himself upright, face pale and tearstained and his eyes wide and horrified. She rushed towards him, wrapping her arm around his waist, while her hand caught his. "What are you doing out of bed?" she reprimanded, pulling him towards the bed. Yami numbly and mechanically followed her wherever she led him, sitting down on the edge of the bed once again, looking tired, lethargic yet simply too terrified to speak a coherent word. "What's going on? Will one of you please tell me what in the world in going on?!"

"Quite simple, actually…we need to ask you your opinion about this silly little issue going on right now," Seto snapped, glaring slightly at Yami who seemed to feel the intensity of Seto's gaze on him, making him cringe slightly, cowering away from the glare. "Someone came in here today and threatened Yami that if he pressed charges, his father's cronies will be coming after you."

Silence hung thick and heavy in the room after the faint echo of Seto's words faded. Seto crossed his arms after that, watching Yami who seemed to shrink more onto himself as though afraid of what was to come after that, and Téa, who had a shocked look on her face as she took in the brunet's words. Her mouth was open slightly as though to speak words that died at her lips before getting voiced and she stayed still for a few moments, before shifting her eyes from Seto to stare at Yami's subtly vibrating form.

When Yami stayed tense, the only movement coming from him was the trembles of anxiety and horror at the thought of what he may be putting Téa through right now and what her reaction would be, the brunette moved from her place at the edge of the bed beside Yami. She crouched on one knee in front of Yami, her hands rising to hold his fretful ones and still their movements.

"Is that why you told the two officers out there that you're not pressing charges?" she asked quietly.

Seto saw Yami's hands clenching to fists in Téa's hold, as he kept his head lowered, eyes not meeting Téa's or his, for that matter. The silence stretched on for a long while.

"Yami, I don't care…" Téa finally broke it, dipping her head, trying to make Yami look at her. He refused to for a while, but she persisted, until he reluctantly raised his eyes to hers. Seto bit his lip to keep from rushing over to Yami to wipe away the quiet, fervent tears that rolled down his pale, sickly skin. Instead he forced himself to stay where he was, knowing that Téa was the one who could solve this silly mess which was dragging on for too long. "Listen to me…" she said, squeezing Yami's hand gently, minding his chafed wrist. "I am willing…to trade so much…if it meant giving you the chance to be happy, Yami."

Yami looked away, closing his eyes, letting another stream of tears roll down his features, as he whispered, "_I_ am not willing to take that risk…"

"You're not taking any risks, Yami…" Seto interfered at that moment. He walked closer to the bed sitting down beside Yami and hooking his index finger beneath his chin to tilt his face up so that his tearful crimson eyes met Seto's determined blue ones, "Nothing will happen to Téa…nothing will happen to her at all and nothing will happen to you anymore either. I will not allow it."

Yami once again closed his eyes, the tears falling in a steady stream now, unstopped at all, as he leaned closer into Seto's touch, letting his forehead come to rest against Seto's shoulder once again, as he gasped out, his restraint finally breaking, "I'm scared…"

Wrapping his arms around Yami and pulling him close, two pairs of blue eyes met briefly and communicated with silence and synergism as usual. Téa got up and stood before them, determinedly asking in response to Yami's silent, broken admission, "What are you scared of Yami? Are you scared for me? Or are you scared it won't work?"

He didn't answer her. His only response was to try and burrow closer into Seto's hold. The brunet once again exchanged looks with Téa.

"Either way, you don't have to be scared. The evidence is with you. Seto is backing you up and you have me, Mr. Paul and Mr. Anderson willing to testify with you in court about what happened. Pressing charges will result in just one thing and that is chucking that asshole in jail where he deserves to be," Seto could feel Yami's shivering starting to subside a little at hearing Téa speaking. "And I do not think that any threat you might've got today morning would be backed up, Yami. You know why? Because once that bastard's ass is thrown in jail, no one would want to risk their futures to avenge someone who is as good as dead. You and I will need protection for only the period of time the court of law needs to sentence him to a very long time in prison…"

Mentally, Seto congratulated Téa for her good, organized pattern of thinking and her determination. He had been right, thinking that she was going to put an end to this ridiculous issue. He hid a small smile by placing a kiss on Yami's head, as the soft trembles completely died down and Yami lay still, exhausted in his arms.

"So…should I call those two in, or would you rather let the creep get away with all the crap he put you through, Yami?" Téa asked, raising an eyebrow.

There was a pause for a bit, before Yami pulled back slightly from Seto's hold. He stared for a long while into the concerned, warm blue eyes so near to his own, before shifting the crimson orbs so he could stare into the other set of concerned, determined blue eyes. He kept looking back and forth between them both, before raising his hand to clumsily wipe away at the tears staining his face and asking, "Could you both…stay…?"

Once again, Seto and Téa exchanged looks, this time an identical smile of relief tugging at the corners of their lips…

* * *

Two Weeks Later

Who would have thought? His little angel/whore could cause so much trouble?

Samuel's thoughts for the past one and a half to two weeks almost always ended with asking himself that question with morbid, bitter amusement. Perhaps he had been wrong to think he had tamed and beaten the boy into fearful submission? No…he had definitely been wrong, otherwise, he would not have been sitting right now in the small bed of the tiny cell in the local prison where they had him transferred after the few days he spent at the police station where he had first been held in custody.

He had been wrong. To let Yami out of his sight. He had been wrong to let Yami out of the house at all. Yami belonged in his room, chained with those rusty handcuffs to the headboard, naked, bruised and whimpering for mercy. But there had been a certain beauty that hung around his little crimson-eyed angel every time he would walk out of the house to school. He would pause for a second at the gates of the villa, looking at his feet for just a while before looking back at the house over his shoulder. Of course, Yami always thought that his father was always asleep at that time and no one would witness his morning ritual of staring with misery and torment at the place he called home, and wishing he was free from it.

It gave Samuel shivers every morning as he stood watching Yami leave to school, to witness that broken expression in the angelic crimson orbs…to witness the knowledge in Yami's eyes that he would never be free of the imaginary shackles that kept him chained to the house…to Samuel…

The knowledge that he was letting the boy go…giving him a painful ersatz of freedom and escape when in fact Yami was never free… yes, it was beautiful.

Samuel smiled to himself sadistically, remembering the way Yami's body would shiver in fear every time he touched him…no matter how many times he touched him. Whenever Yami came back home and he, Samuel, had been waiting for him to touch him…it gave him pleasure beyond belief to literally and metaphorically feel Yami withering away under his touch. The touch that marked him as Samuel's belonging no matter what happened.

That was the beauty in it. Yami was not chained…wasn't held prisoner…not physically. It was so sweet. So beautiful, the amount of control he had over his adorable little angel…to make him come back home everyday without telling anyone anything about how he was Samuel's personal belonging, although nothing but Samuel's power held him captive and chained to their home…

Samuel smiled to himself contentedly, recalling the numerous times those wide, crimson orbs would stare up at him with a pleading…beautiful expression that always did the trick of making his own crimson eyes darken to a nearly black color as he stared back down into them without mercy or compassion…

Perhaps it was something about Yami that woke that desire to destroy in him…he didn't know. He didn't care and he most certainly did not regret any moment of it. Yami was his property to do with as he pleased…

He still remembered the very first time Yami lay down beneath him, confused and terrified and trying to plead with him not to hurt him…trying to reason with him. What had he done? What did he do to deserve his anger?

Only Samuel wasn't angry. He loved Yami…he loved him so much. He told Yami that as he touched the small, soft body, still too young to have any muscles on it. Tender and begging to be touched, bruised…

Yami had been sleeping when he came back from an outing with some friends…the boy had forgotten to get under the covers, as usual and was lying there in those adorable pajamas of his, his nose crinkling, and little toes twitching every once in a while in his sleep. Samuel had stood watching him lustfully, thinking of how much he worshipped the child beyond reason…

He was still thinking of how much he loved Yami even as the boy opened his sleepy crimson eyes and asked him what he was doing and if he lost his way into his room. Still innocent…so, so innocent and beautiful. Samuel wanted it all…

And he took it all. He loved Yami. He loved Yami so much…he had to take it all.

He smiled to himself once again…but then his thoughts were interrupted with one of the guards banged on the bars of his cell.

"Hey, Motou…someone's here to see you," the man told him, opening the cell's door. Samuel did not answer and allowed his hands to be chained behind his back. He wondered if it was his lawyer once again and was almost about to groan in frustration.

However, when he walked into the small room where he would meet his visitor, he didn't find his lawyer waiting for him as it was the case always. He sat in the chair as the guard instructed him, wondering who would be visiting him.

He sat waiting for nearly fifteen minutes, until he started fidgeting, wondering what was going on. This was annoying. Even if he had nothing better to do other than sit in bed staring at the walls of his cell, it was still annoying to be dragged all the way here just so he could sit in a chair and continue staring at a wall that was identical to the one he had in his room…

Just when he was about to call out to the guard to ask what the fuck was going on, the door opened once again. He opened his mouth to ask the guard just that, but then he stopped, surprise killing the words on his lips as the guard stepped aside, showing one of the two people who had come to visit him…

A serene face, framed with smooth, golden tresses of multi-colored hair, a small smile, and a pair of crimson eyes that were so familiar… only these weren't pleading or downcast in submission or tearful. Those were calm, clear and full of life as they stared into his own that mirrored the shade, but showed surprise instead of the serene expression…

"Hello, dad…"

* * *

A/N: To be continued…one more chapter and we're done :)

Thanks for reading everyone.

Hathor…


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N**: last chapter…thank you a lot to everyone who stuck around to see this finished…again :D

**Leave Out All The Rest**

**Chapter Fifteen**

Maybe it wouldn't be a wise thing to do…

No, actually, Yami was sure that it was not the right thing to do. He was sure he was going to regret it. He was sure that he was going to walk out feeling worse than ever. Because…sensibly thinking of it –stressing on 'sensibly'—what could possibly be the outcome of such a confrontation, other than more pain, humiliation, suffering and reinforcement of the inescapable fact that he will never truly walk out unscathed from the battle that had been his life formerly.

But then again…he hadn't really been known for being sensible.

Perhaps he still had hope that his father would show some inkling of remorse, for what he had done. Maybe it was that craving to see that small flicker of regret flicking through the crimson eyes that had stared at him with nothing but contempt and sadism for the past few years. Maybe then he would be able to understand that all of this hadn't been intentional. Or maybe he just needed a really, really solid proof that the monster was locked up.

Seto told him that he didn't have to do it. More than four times that morning itself and countless times over the past five days when Yami first announced that he was going to pay his father a visit. But Yami knew he didn't have to. He knew he didn't have to go through with this visit. Seto told him that all he had to do was stay at home, relax and wait until he had to go give his statement in the court of law. He needn't worry about anything else.

"I am not worried," he told Seto, curled up as he was on the couch, with a heavy blanket covering him. He meant it. He was not worried. Not back at that particular moment, when everything seemed to be so damn perfect. For the first time in forever, he was experiencing a combination of the bliss of not being in pain, being sober, not _expecting_ to be in pain any time soon and enjoying the company of the people sitting with him in the same room.

He had been released from the hospital just day before yesterday. Seto took him home. The Mansion. He hadn't fully recovered, he wasn't even close. Dr. Cormack told him that his ribs may give him some difficulty for a very long time to follow. The vicious concussion no longer bothered him, although the wound itself was tender and made talking, or even sleeping, a painful task at times. The wounds scabbed over. Bruises started fading. Stiff muscles were regaining their function again.

The only injuries that physically healed completely, were the ones he got from the excessively brutal desecration. That last time his father had taken him against his will…was the worst. And that _was_ saying something. He didn't mind the others. He didn't mind it when breathing itself hurt him because of his ribs and when he couldn't sleep because of the throbbing headache. No, he found that he couldn't stand the sickening discomfort that the injury from the vindictive way in which Samuel took him that day. He was eternally grateful when the pain started fading, no longer paralyzing his legs beyond any movement. It had been most annoying, for the next few days after he woke up, having to stay in bed all the time because every time he attempted to move, his legs would give out from beneath him because of the pain that extended to every corner of his body. It was the only thing that healed completely…

But even if he still wasn't completely alright…he was much, _much_ better.

He had smiled, snuggled deeper under the warm blanket, crimson eyes shifting between Seto, who sat with his arm resting on his shoulders, and Mokuba who was sitting on the ground, books spread out on the coffee table, and Téa, who was seated with a mug of hot chocolate in her hands on one of the armchairs, before repeating, "I am not worried."

"Yeah, well, _I_ am," Seto protested, frowning. He sighed when Yami gave him a small, content smile and sipped on the sweet hot chocolate, savoring the marshmallows and small pieces of walnuts. Mokuba was really good at making this stuff, he observed absentmindedly as Seto added, "I just don't understand. Why do you want to go?"

Yami stared at his mug for a while longer, before shrugging, "Dunno."

Of course, Seto did not stop trying to make him go back on his decision. He didn't. He couldn't explain it; he was not lying when he said he didn't know why he wanted to go see his father. He seriously had no clue. But he did not want to explain it. He had made the excuse of wanting to see regret in his father's eyes, but like that, he knew he was fooling himself so he stopped trying to explain it. He knew he needed to get this visit done and over with, but he didn't know why.

"You don't have to do this," Seto had repeated to him that night. He was sitting on the edge of Yami's bed…in the very same room he had been given when he stayed at the Mansion the past two times.

"I know," Yami replied, giving him an uncertain little smile.

Seto stared at him in silence for a while longer, before sighing for the millionth time that day and mumbling, "Alright Yami…whatever you want."

He was about to get up to go to his room. It was something that Seto firmly stuck to and planned to abide by until the time was right. He did not want to make Yami feel any form of pressure from him. He kept his distance at all times, not initiating the slightest physical contact until and unless Yami demanded it.

However, before he could get up, Yami grabbed his wrist and stopped him. He turned to look at him, so Yami nibbled uncertainly on the corner of his lower lip and after another moment's hesitation tugged harder on Seto's wrist while getting up from where he had been lying in bed. He stared a while longer into Seto's blue eyes, reading the love and unconditional support there, before tugging on the sweatshirt Seto was wearing, pulling him close for a kiss.

When they pulled apart, Yami wrapped his arms around his neck and whispered into his ear, "Sleep here tonight…" Seto had tried to pull away immediately, but Yami held on tighter, whispering, "Just to sleep…please."

Yami smiled calmly as he walked towards the place where he would be seeing his father for the first time in two weeks. The smile lingered on his features as he thought of last night, which happened to be the first night in forever, where he slept feeling safe and indifferent. His hand curled tighter around Seto's and, just like he expected, it squeezed his back reassuringly offering the support he had been anticipating…

However, said support only provided ease of mind for just a few moments. Less than a minute later, his heart felt as though it was trying to jump out of his ribcage, his breath coming out in short, uncomfortable little gasps of anxiety as he stood before the door of the room where his father was supposedly seated, waiting for him and Seto. He raised a hand and unconsciously, he held onto the front of the leather jacket he was wearing, as though trying to still the painful way with which his heart was beating. He closed his eyes, praying for strength to do this. He needed to do this, he reminded himself. If he didn't…if he didn't do this, then he would never be free…

"I'm here…" Seto's voice, as well as another tiny squeeze to his hand, shook him out of the tiny panic attack he had passed into.

He blinked, raising his eyes to stare into the clear blue eyes that darkened ever-so-slightly with the trust, determination and sincerity that gave Yami all the strength he needed at that moment. Whatever was past that door…he could face it. Seto was there. That was all he needed and all he could ask for. Squeezing Seto's hand back then letting it go after a moment of hesitation, Yami nodded to the guard, telling him that he was ready.

The man stepped inside and Yami walked into the room behind him, a sense of calmness washing over him so suddenly, he had no chance to even know where it came from. In fact, he was surprised to find his lips tugging up in a smile, so small and unnoticeable, that it could have passed as a content look, as his eyes met the familiar crimson eyes, hauntingly identical to his own in shade. His only consolation, as he calmly greeted, "Hello, dad," was the fact that his eyes did not mirror the surprised, hazy look in those pair of crimson eyes…which, even now, in prison…in so much trouble, stared at him with a mad glint that had a hint of that dark lust that seemed to be always present in them.

He swallowed in fear, but made sure that on the outside, he still wore the calmness that now seemed to be seeping away from him faster than water seeping through lax fingers. The look of surprise faded so fast, Yami wondered if it had even been there to begin with. And when it faded, that look of apathetic amusement that Yami was so used to, surfaced onto his father's handsome, calm features, so that as he sat there, dressed the in the prison's greens, strands of his hair falling into his half-lidded crimson eyes, he seemed as though he hadn't a care in the world.

"Hello, Yami…" he replied, and Yami did not know if he was truly replying to his greeting or mocking him.

He did not run away yet. He sat down in the chair opposite Samuel's, as Seto exchanged a venomous look with his father.

In response to the contempt he saw in Seto's eyes, Samuel shifted his own eyes to stare at Yami with an overly wicked expression, licking his lips obscenely and huskily mumbling, "I missed you."

Yami shuddered and felt his stomach, empty because he felt too nervous to put anything in today morning, turn. Bile burnt a path up to his throat and he swallowed queasily, muttering sourly, "Can't say feelings are likewise."

Samuel did not answer.

The silence persisted. Yami was unwilling to break it, staring at the edge of the table with a solemn look on his face as he thought of what was going on right now. He thought of what was going on right now and how different it was, yet how similar, to how things happened for the past…decade or more.

He recalled Yugi and the way they used to laugh with each other during the less stifling times, when both their 'parents' were away, busy destroying something else other than their children. He could clearly remember the small dimple that appeared on Yugi's left cheek whenever he smiled and the way his amethyst eyes would sparkle…

He clearly remembered the last time he saw those eyes open. He clearly remembered how different they were…dead, faded, dull. He remembered hearing the words, "It's all your fault!" being yelled at him as he watched the last flicker of life fading from them. He remembered having to close them with his own hands just before darkness overwhelmed him, until he woke up days later in a hospital. He remembered the endless nights he spent alone in bed after that trying to deal with the uncontrollable guilt and unstoppable tears.

He remembered Téa telling him that it wasn't his fault. She had been so sweet back then…little in size, with big blue eyes and the two pigtails in her hair. He could remember waking up in the hospital once with his right hands in a cast and the same blue eyes staring at him in worry.

He remembered the first time he started cutting, after his finger accidentally slipped on a kitchen knife while making himself something to eat. Sitting there in this somewhat large room in the heart of the prison, he stared with dry, expressionless eyes at his arm, covered by the leather sleeve of his jacket. He imagined the disgusting mess that was his skin beneath it. And then he recalled how much he often thought that this scarred terrain was nothing but a meager, inaccurate physical representation of what he was on the inside…

It was so similar, yet so different. Similar because it was ugly… hideous and he couldn't stand the sight of it. Yet it was so different because the bigger, uglier scars than the ones on his arms, were not seen. They were not spread out, bare to the whole world to speculate and analyze. So similar, yet so different…

Just the way his father was currently staring at him from across the table. He knew the look. He had it ingrained permanently in his mind's eye forever. He would never, ever forget the look of crazed, incoherent hunger, accentuated grotesquely by possessiveness and tinged with light traces of contempt that made his skin crawl and made him feel lower than dirt. But nothing could be compared to how the small flickers of love and admiration that seeped into the hair-raising expression, made him feel. It left him confused, uncertain, vulnerable… it was the same way his father had stared at him, that one particular night when he woke up feeling hands running over his body, touching him where he knew he shouldn't be touched…

Yet, that time he was alone. Now, although he felt terrified just like the first time he took notice of that feral, possessive look, he felt also reassured a little, feeling the warmth from Seto's body all along his side as he sat beside him, a hand curled loosely around his. Back then he was a frightened child, confused, unable to resist and unable to do anything except submit. Now…that too was different. Now he was a child no longer but a strong, fully-grown young man who had strength that people more than three times his age did not possess.

He smiled suddenly, realizing that, in comparison to the fear he was feeling right now, and how low his father's stare made him feel…it was nothing compared to confidence he had acquired over the past few weeks.

He looked up and finally met his father's eyes…

"How are they treating you here?" he asked. He was gloating. He could feel the smirk spreading across his features. He had never believed in karma up to this moment. Now he knew what it was like to be staring from above, to have someone else squirming under his gaze instead of having it the other way round. Granted, his father was not actually squirming, but it was so delightful to see the flash of surprise that flittered in the crimson pools staring into his own, in response to his sudden question.

There was silence for a few moments. Seto shifted slightly, crossing his legs. He still did not say a word, resorting to sitting there silently, staring with unwavering eyes at Samuel, whose eyes flickered over to the brunet, stared at him with a debauched look, crimson eyes dragging over the tall, slender frame with exaggerated hunger and boldness, intended to make Seto uneasy.

Seeing that Seto was completely unfazed by his attempts, Samuel smirked and looked at Yami once more, "Concerned so much about me, Yami?"

"Ha!" the snort of bitter amusement rang out loud and clear in the bare room. Yami started chuckling in hilarity, his father's words amusing him beyond reason. "Do you really believe so?" he asked, his voice full of his laughter.

"I am _sure_ of so…" Samuel replied with a smug, self-assured smile. "I know you too well, Yami…" he added, his gaze drifting over to Seto once more to give him a haughty smile…as though he knew something the brunet didn't. "Aren't you concerned about me, Yami?" he added, still staring at Seto in the eye, unwilling to break the contact. It was a battle entirely different from the one Yami was having with his father… neither wanted to lose.

In response to his father's question, Yami's laughter was toned down to a bitter little smile, "Yes…I am…"

At his words, Yami felt Seto tilt his head towards him ever-so-slightly, surprise emanating off his form unchecked, as Yami's response came completely unexpected to him.

Samuel started laughing. Yami watched him with sad eyes and the same bitter smile, as he seemed to find something absolutely hilarious about Seto's surprise. However, the smile faded into a gloomy expression once again, as his father's laughter subsided, the dark amusement giving way to power-crazed lust. "He does not know…that you can never love anyone but me…he doesn't know that no one loves you as much as I love you, Yami…"

The words left Yami immobilized with fear and shock. He did not notice, until after it happened, that his father's hand had slid over the table's top, crossing the distance between them, to grab his hand and hold it. The familiar fingers touched his own, sliding gently over his knuckles in the barest of caresses.

Yami froze…

In a second, Seto had moved, grabbing hold of Samuel's wrist. Yami flinched away in fear as the familiar touch, which had his flesh crawling with the uneasy sensation it caused, was removed away from him. Seto held Samuel's wrist in a vice-like grip, glaring coldly at the older man as he removed his hand away from Yami's, coolly, detachedly commanding with a voice that would have sent the bravest of men cowering beneath the brunet's feet, "Don't touch him…"

Had Yami been aware of anything save for the terror coursing through his veins, he would have marveled at the challenge that was exchanged between Seto and his father. Their eyes held one another's, glaring venomously as though they were trying to set the other on fire through looks alone. They seemed as though they were predators challenging the other to a test of strength and worth, about to leap on the other's throat to kill him without mercy. Perhaps they were about to do just that…but the guard with them in the room finally reached the table and interfered, disengaging them from the close proximity that would have led to murder in just a few seconds…

After the commotion settled down again, Samuel's hand back at his side of the table and Seto seated as calmly as ever in his place as well, Yami's shock subsided and he found himself mobile once again. That was terrifying…more terrifying than he ever thought it would be, after having those hands touch every inch of his body. The simple touch was unexpected and unwanted…

"So many precautions against me, Yami…?" Samuel whispered, finally breaking the moment of silence that passed over the room. "So many precautions against the one who loves you the most…?"

"You don't love me!" Yami viciously spat, looking up. The suddenness of the exclamation struck Samuel speechless. Yami glared so heatedly at him and, obviously, in doing so, he managed to shut him up long enough to add, "And I do not love you… understand that!"

It sounded so childish to his ears, what he just said. But it really made no difference because that is exactly what he felt. He had no doubt in his heart that there wasn't a single moment in his entire life that this man sitting before him, ever felt the slightest stirring of love in his heart for him. Likewise…he never felt remotely related to Samuel, not in any way.

"So…do you hate me, then?"

The question was uttered with such sadness; it made Yami's eyes moisten. _Did_ he hate his father?

"No…" he replied, more to his own mental enquiry, than to his father's. He raised his head, blinked once, hence releasing the tears accumulating in his eyes, letting them travel in two, hot twin tracks down his features that relaxed into another smile, only this one was not so bitter and had a lot more hope in it than the previous one. "No, dad…I don't hate you. At least…not anymore."

He could feel Seto's eyes on him, as well as the guard's, as they both stared at him in confusion and uncertainty, not understanding him at all. But he ignored their puzzled looks, focusing instead on his father's expressions, as they too were flooded with confusion.

"Hate…will ruin my life," he stated simply. His smile widened and, tearing his eyes away from Samuel, he reached for Seto's hand, which immediately reached out for his as well. He wiped away the trails the tears made on his face and he stared at Seto for a while longer, exchanging a look of determination, trust and unconditional love with the brunet, before turning back to Samuel who was glaring at their joined hands, then added, "I have the rest of my life ahead of me, dad…already, you have ruined it enough. You've taken away what you should not have taken…you've mutilated me physically and mentally beyond repair…to be honest, I think that that is enough damage. I will not add to it by festering in my hate for you."

He stood up, having nothing more to say really.

As if on cue, Seto stood up as well, falling behind him slightly, towards his side, and Yami felt reassured at feeling the warmth of his body along his own as he stared one final time at his father while adding, "I am going to walk out of this room right now…and I will try my hardest to forget about you for the rest of my life. I may not succeed in doing so…but my only consolation is that _you_, on the other hand…you will remember me for the rest of your life, dad…"

He gave Seto a smile, which was returned by a small one, as he turned around and walked towards the door. However, before he reached it, he paused for a moment, then turned back to Samuel who sat with his fists clenched till his knuckles turned white, and laughed mirthfully, "And don't let my words about me not loving you affect you…don't worry; you'll get plenty of love in prison. The same kind of love you've shown me…"

And with lethal calmness, he turned around once again and walked out of the room.

Seto lingered a while longer, casting one last disgusted glance at the monster sitting in the middle of the room. He halted his journey out of the place when Samuel's eyes held his own blue ones in an intense gaze filled with intensity he was unfamiliar with.

"He will always be mine…"

Seto's eyes narrowed and contempt flooded his blue eyes. "Enjoy your prolonged stay in prison, Mr. Motou," he calmly said, before turning around and leaving.

* * *

_Three Minutes Later_

Seto eyed Yami carefully, as he sat in the corner of the limo, staring out of the window as the vehicle was driven out of the prison's premises. He bit his lip slightly, contemplating what he just witnessed in that small room, and Yami's unexpected responses. To be honest, he hadn't known what he should be expecting from this visit; hell, he did not even know _why_ Yami needed to see that monster ever again. But even if he had not expected the confrontation to go the way it did…he never thought that what was said in that room was even imaginable…

But why was he thinking about that now, when Yami so obviously wanted to leave all of it behind him? He scolded himself and after only a second's pause to decide on the next course of action, he muttered, "Hey, you okay?" as he scooted closer to Yami's body, whose language screamed bloody murder with how tense it was.

Yami blinked and averted his eyes from the passing scenery. For a moment, as Seto held his gaze and tried to send reassurances through it while holding onto Yami's thin hand, he saw an expression of uncertainty in the crimson orbs, as though Yami had no idea where he was at the moment, or what was going on. A second later, his other hand had risen, gently caressing Yami's cheek softly with his knuckles.

To his relief, he found Yami's body relaxing and his face breaking into a genuine smile. He moved closer, away from the window, and scooted closer as well, leaning into Seto's touch and raising his arm to wrap it around the brunet's waist, leaning his head against his shoulder. "Yeah…I'm good…" he reassured, Seto feeling him nod slightly to reinforce his answer.

Silence wrapped around them warmly for the next minute or two. Seto grinned as he thought of the past few months, and everything that Yami managed to accomplish. All was well, he thought to himself happily, craning his head downwards slightly so that his lips brushed the soft strands of multicolored hair.

At his motion, Yami shifted slightly and stared up at him, beaming widely, eyes sparkling with many positive emotions that Seto had no time to decipher, before his attention was distracted by the words, "Thank you…so much."

"I hardly think I should be thanked for anything, Yami," Seto said, his smile widening.

"No!" Yami quickly told him, his hands moving to quickly grab Seto's. "Don't even try to belittle what you did for me; you…" he paused, staring at the slender digits that moved during the while of silence, to entwine with his own, before looking up to stare into Seto's blue eyes once again, "If it wasn't for you…I would not have been here now. This would not have been what's happening…"

Seto couldn't demean the moment with words, because none were appropriate enough to reply to Yami's bright, hopeful, grateful expression. So, he simply settled onto removing one of his hands from Yami's, raising it to once again caress the delicate line of the prominent cheekbone, sliding into the soft, multicolored locks and tangling in them, drawing Yami nearer to him, so that their lips met in what would later on be remembered to be the first kiss without Samuel's shadow looming over them…

* * *

_Three Days Later_

Yami chewed on the cherry he picked up from the bowl, fingers idly stroking the area behind Hoshi's left ear, making the kitten purr happily where it was lying curled up docilely on his lap. He kept his eyes fixed on the bowl of fruits lying beside him on Seto's cozy, comfortable bed which was simply too large to accommodate five people, each lying miles away from each other.

Whenever his gaze strayed away from the fruits, he made sure to stare at the figure sitting beside him on the bed. Seto was restlessly working on his laptop, which was the only compromise out of a long, tedious argument he had with Yami when the latter demanded that he set aside his work for the rest of the day. It was just one hour after they agreed to go upstairs, abandoning Seto's home office to the more comfortable bedroom. They had been sitting this way for that duration of time, Seto working and Yami enjoying the comfortable, peaceful silence, interrupted only by the sound of the brunet's fingers tapping elegantly against the keyboard, and the occasional, appreciative purrs the kitten made.

Yami anxiety was growing, so was his anticipation. He planned something…he planned to ask Seto for something. He didn't know if Seto was going to abide to his wishes or not. He was torn between conflicting emotions. A part of him wanted Seto to agree so badly…yet, he feared that if Seto agreed, it would bring back horrors he no longer wanted to deal with, hence disappointing Seto's expectations. Another part of him wanted Seto to refuse…but that too, he was scared of, because he did not know if he was strong enough not to take it as rejection…

His hand reached for the bowl of fruits…then paused, when he realized that his only distraction from his worried thoughts, was over, settling comfortably in his stomach.

He sighed…

The sound of tapping stopped and Yami felt Seto's eyes shift, settling on him.

Yami shifted slightly, placing the bowl on the nightstand, then moving carefully to place the now-sleeping cat in her little basket beside the bed. He kept his eyes fixed on the small animal for a few minutes, as he listened contemplatively to the sounds Seto was making as he shut down his laptop finally and seemed to prepare for sleep.

It was alright, now… after that night before his visit to his father in prison, they both shared a bed without Seto complaining. It made Yami smile a little, the fact that it was Seto who was complaining about the rightness of the time for this arrangement and the tiny little step forward.

His smile was obviously noticed by Seto who shifted closer to him after taking his place on the other side of the bed, wrapping his arm around his shoulder and pulling him close. Yami naturally found himself falling into the familiar position, his legs curling up and his body leaning closer to Seto's, head resting on his shoulder as the brunet asked with a smile evident in his words, "What's funny?"

Yami shook his head, "Nothing…just remembering someone being silly." And he accompanied his words with a slight poke to Seto's side.

Seto's lack of question regarding that "silly person's" identity, made him laugh softly.

When his little giggle died down, he found himself suddenly losing the smile that lingered after the brief moment of laughter. Once again, because of their current position, his thoughts took him to what he had been contemplating moments ago.

Unconsciously, his body stiffened with tension, and inevitably, Seto noticed.

"What's wrong?" the brunet asked, and started withdrawing away from him, thinking that perhaps their close proximity had startled Yami in some way and was the cause for his discomfort…

Yami's hands moved as fast as lightening, clutching tightly at the front of the sweatshirt Seto was wearing, stopping his retreat, even pulling him closer as he jerked him back in place. Silence hung heavy over them for a while, their eyes staring deep into one another's, as though trying to reach out for some untouchable part of the other's soul. Yami could easily read the deep caring and honesty in the clear blue orbs, hiding behind the confusion.

"Yami…?" Seto whispered questioningly, unsure of what was going on.

At the sound of his name, Yami felt his chest tightening so much… the single, one-worded question speaking his name aloud, it made him ache with the need to be with this person who was the reason why his life now was so different from what it had been for the past 12 years, in every single way possible.

Without another word, Yami pulled Seto even closer, before pausing, suddenly unsure of what he was going to ask.

Seto took the decision for him, lips curling in a small smile, before they made contact with Yami's skin, kissing and gently caressing the corner of Yami's closed, pliable, petal-soft lips. A soft breath escaped Yami, making him realize that he had not been breathing for the past few seconds. He kept his eyes open, glad that Seto did the same. Because, when their gazes met, Yami could read so many different emotions flickering through the endless pools of blue before his eyes; he barely had time to try and recognize some of those emotions.

Yami moved back ever so slightly, giving Seto a small smile of his own. He raised his hand and let the tips of his fingers brush the pale skin on the prominent cheekbone, before letting them trail into the soft brown tresses, disturbing their neat arrangement. He leaned his forehead against Seto's, looking deeply into his eyes, blurting out suddenly, "Make love to me…"

Seto froze for a second, before starting to move back.

"No!" Yami stopped him, once again tugging on his clothes and jerking him close. "Please…I want this…" he implored, feeling that previous tightening in his chest once again, this time ten times as bad…

"Not yet, Yami…" Seto shook his head.

"No, I want it to be now…I'm ready," Yami pleaded, his hold tightening on the fabric in which his fists were bunched.

Once again, Seto shook his head, "I don't want to be a reason for your discomfort, Yami."

"You won't!" Yami cried in desperation. "I really want this…you won't make me uncomfortable. Seto, this won't get better unless we take this step. Please…" The first flicker of doubt and uncertainty that tainted the determination in Seto's blue eyes, was Yami's cue to try harder. He shifted, lifting himself from his place, swinging one of his legs on Seto's other side, so that he was now straddling the brunet's slender form.

"Yami, I don't want to scare y…" Seto started once again, but Yami did not let him continue.

He placed their lips together, mimicking Seto's earlier, gentle moves, placing small caresses and slight nips on the tender skin of the brunet's lower lip. He was adamant to get through with this. He kept up his soft ministrations, until finally, Seto relented, letting one hand travel up to Yami's smooth, multicolored locks, to pull him close, while opening his mouth to respond to the soft touches and induce more of the sexy little sounds Yami was making.

Yami tilted his head to the side slightly, allowing Seto easy access to his mouth, responding quite contently to the tender treatment which he never even dreamed to ever receive.

It didn't take long until he grinned in lazy triumph when he felt the obvious stirrings of excitement in Seto's body that told him that he had been successful in seducing the brunet.

"Come on, Seto…" he whispered, allowing his mouth to trail down Seto's jaw line, scattering small kisses and caresses, until he reached the pulse point on the long, slender column of the brunet's neck. He sucked at it expertly, irritating the creamy-white skin with little licks and light suction, making Seto's breathing comes out more raggedly than its usual rhythm.

When he drew back, he smiled lazily to see the obvious, reddish-brown mark that marred the otherwise smooth flesh.

"I promise you, if I don't want to go on, I'll tell you," Yami swore, staring pleadingly into the blue eyes that darkened from their beautiful cerulean shade, into a dangerous royal blue one…

For the rest of the night, the request to stop never came.

* * *

_Three Weeks Later_

Seto barely managed to keep in his laughter at Yami's expression as Michael and Téa joined their table at lunch. He warily eyed Téa's boyfriend with distrusting, carefully crimson eyes, as he nibbled on his bar of Cadbury, listening in silence to the couple talking casually with Seto and amongst themselves. It wasn't easy for Yami to so quickly trust the person who was about to turn him into a doormat once, Seto could clearly see that.

However, Michael made an impressive job out of acting as normal as possible. Inevitably, Yami started unwinding. Fifteen minutes after the start of the lunch hour, he suddenly spoke while Téa was speaking to Michael about a new movie in the theatre, commenting randomly that he thought the greatest movies ever made, were the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

There was silence at the table for a few moments, before Seto suddenly started laughing. Yami glared indignantly at him, protesting, "What! The Elves are all really cool."

Seto started laughing even louder.

Yami was momentarily distracted when Téa and Michael both started laughing as well, before he turned to glare at Seto even more, a fist landing a painful little punch on the brunet's shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?" Seto asked, rubbing the sore spot through his school uniform. Even then, he was still laughing.

"Because you're making fun of me," Yami told him, returning to his chocolate and silence, which was now more sulking than wary and hesitant.

"Aww, Yami, he wasn't making fun of you…really," Téa told him, giving Michael a similar punch on the shoulder to stop him from laughing.

Yami sourly glared at all of them but said nothing.

"We can go watch that movie Téa was talking about," Michael suggested amiably. He held Yami's gaze, when he looked up in surprise. He then turned to Seto, adding, "Tonight or tomorrow night, if Kaiba's not busy?"

"If Yami's okay with it, why not?" Seto said, looking at Yami questioningly, asking his opinion of the matter.

Yami stared blankly at the three of them, one after the other, disbelieving that the suggestion came from Michael, and deliriously happy to see three similar hopeful expressions in their eyes. He stayed silent for a few more moments, gathering himself properly before responding, "Tomorrow night would be okay…today…it's not possible." He had an appointment with his psychiatrist at 4:30 today.

"Tomorrow night then. The seven o'clock show?" Michael nodded, exchanging looks with Seto and Téa, to see if they were cool with this arrangement as well. When they nodded their consent, he turned back to Yami once again and remarked, "And by the way, Yami…" Yami looked up at him again from where he had lowered his head to stare at the edge of the table with a silly little smile on his face. "I think Elves are awesome, too," Michael resumed, mimicking Yami's sheepish grin.

The rest of the lunch hour was spent with Téa muttering, "I cannot believe it!" about Michael's last comment. Yami easily found himself feeling comfortable in the conversation to follow. It was a great feeling. To be able to sit there and talk to other human beings, without worrying about being in pain, or being too doped up to be able to hold a civilized conversation, or expecting to go home to hell. He enjoyed it. A lot…

After lunch hour, was a Math class. Yami sat beside Seto, taking out his notebook and starting to copy the example on the board, into it as the teacher explained the very complicated aspects of indices, which, only three months ago, he would never have been able to follow because of lack of concentration.

He had returned to school two days ago. He hardly ever said a thing in class; the teachers –except for Mr. Anderson, of course—, as well his classmates, did not have any idea where he was, or what happened in the past three months. Hence, they had no idea he was no longer the same person. He was afraid of their reaction. Seto knew that and had tried to tell him that no one has the right to judge him for anything…

Still, he kept to himself, working in silence as example after example was explained. He understood the lesson smoothly, because it was easy, and everyone else seemed to think so as well.

However, the teacher suddenly raised his head from where he had been seated at his desk, asking, "Does anyone know why…" he paused, making sure he got the attention of the entire class, before adding with a small smile, "why when a number has a 0 index, it is always equal to 1?"

Yami blinked, as the class fell into silence for a while, before a small buzz started up, with side discussions getting initiated, derisive comments getting passed, and questions of "who cares" erupting from more than just a few of his classmates' mouths.

Seto glanced at Yami, studying him in silence, watching as expression of thoughtfulness appeared in his crimson eyes, before a hint of hesitant recognition took its place. The brunet smiled, "Tell him…"

Yami blinked, "What?"

"The answer…you figured it out, right?"

Yami frowned slightly, "I think, yeah."

"Then tell him. No one else is saying anything useful. You'd have tried," Seto cajoled. He needed Yami to have a lot more confidence in himself from now on. He was so smart, now that he was no longer under the crushing influence of his father and his drug addiction. He could very clearly see the beautiful potential Yami had in him to become a very successful person in spite of everything that happened to him so far.

"He's just gonna shun me," Yami whispered and sank lower in his seat.

"Nope, he won't. I'll shun him if he shuns you," Seto reassured. "Come on! Just give it a try…"

At that moment, the teacher sighed, "Come on, people…you're all supposed to be smart 11-graders here…"

Seto raised his eyebrows encouragingly.

Yami bit his lip for a moment in uncertainty, then spoke out loud.

"Because…" he stopped for a second to gather his thoughts and courage since everyone's eyes turned to him in surprise.

Seto saw the adorable tinge of red brushing over Yami's cheeks at being the center of attention. It was not something that Yami wasn't used to…he was just not used to the fact that he was actually not being rude or bitter or defiant, but was actually genuinely trying to participate in the classroom.

"Because, when a number has the index of 0, that number is actually the result of the division of two identical numbers…with identical indices." Yami completed his sentence, but then when he saw that his classmates were staring in confusion at him, he added, "For example, if we have 2-cubed, divided by 2-cubed as well. The laws state that we should subtract the indices, right? So if we subtract the indices, that is, 3 minus 3, we will get 0. So the number becomes 2-raise-to-0. Now is we look at it in another way, we will see that 2-cubed, which is 8, divided by 2-cubed, also 8, it becomes…1. So we can say that 8 divided to 8, is the same as 2-cubed divided to 2-cubed, which is also the same as 2-raise-to-0, which all equate to…1."

There was pin drop silence in the class after the explanation. Seto could see Yami's face turning a rosy brown shade, as he sank lower in his chair, trying to disappear and wondering what the hell Seto got him into. He seemed quite sure that he was about to get mocked right now.

However, he was proven wrong when the teacher's face broke into a huge grin and he said, "Very good…well done," and turned to the rest of the classroom, muttering, "It's good to know that at least one person is smart enough to be here…"

And he picked up his marker and walked to the white-board to start explaining on it what Yami just said.

Yami was blinking in shock, looking at Seto disbelievingly, as though he didn't know what just happened. Seto just laughed and playfully tugged on a stray bang of his hair, going back to solving the problems they were given.

Three Months Later

He was detached from what was happening around him, not wanting to acknowledge it, yet wanting to start laughing in vengeful happiness. It was his right, he had the right to start laughing happily because of the justice that was finally bestowed upon him and the one who ruined his life.

He was aware of Seto wrapping an arm around him, and aware of himself turning in the seat to wrap his own arms around Seto's neck and bury his face in his shoulder, to try and hide from the whole situation. And he was then aware of the tears that streamed down his face in torrents. He was also aware of the rustle of people getting up. He could also vaguely hear the attorney congratulating them on the easy victory and the correct implementation of the law in such a case.

But, in his mind, words were replaying in his mind as though in a lullaby that soothed his aching, abused soul, giving it deliverance from the ghost of the person who the sentence was passed against in this court of law…

"_Find…Samuel Motou…guilty of…the jury's decision…power…sentence…life imprisonment without parole…"_

Yami raised his and got up suddenly. Seto immediately followed, holding his hand and walking out from their place behind their table. He walked with detached determination towards the table on the opposite side of the hall, towards his father, who was getting led away towards the exit of the hall.

The police officers stopped when Yami stood before his father, staring up into his eyes with the same serene, peaceful expression he wore when he walked into the prison room to visit him.

The moment went on forever, the two similar pairs of crimson eyes staring deeply into the other, holding so many conversations, saying so many words and exchanging what was never said between Yami and his father.

"Goodbye, dad," Yami finally said, his smile widening ever-so-slightly.

He turned around, not sparing his father another glance, and raised Seto's hand to his chest lovingly, while leaning into his side, as the brunet led him out of the building.

That was the last time he ever saw his father ever again, and the last he heard of him, too.

* * *

_Three Years Later_

"Baby, I'm back!"

Yami smiled widely and scrambled to his feet, from where he was sitting sprawled on the floor of the living room, books spread out around him. He half-ran towards the door to meet Seto, who was taking off his coat to it on the hanger beside the front doors of the Mansion. Without waiting for Seto finish the task, Yami hauled himself at the brunet, throwing his arms around his neck and pulling him down to kiss him on the lips, taking advantage of how Seto was tangled up in his coat and couldn't maneuver out of the situation.

They kissed for long, until they both ran out of breath. Seto smiled when they moved apart for just an inch or two, asking as he completed the task of removing the coat, "Missed me that much?"

"You should move KaibaCorp here," Yami suggested.

"Wouldn't it be easier if we shift your faculty as well as your books, to KaibaCorp?" Seto asked, placing his briefcase on the table in the hallway.

"You want to shift Domino's Faculty of Biomedical Genetics beside KaibaCorp? Politicians will think you're planning something fishy," Yami joked, shoving at Seto's shoulder playfully.

Seto laughed and once again pulled Yami into his arms to kiss him, before asking, "Are you too busy? Let's go out for dinner…"

"Okay, I'll go get dressed into something more presentable," Yami laughed, looking down at the pair of black sweatpants he was wearing, and the dark blue hoodie, whose hood mussed up his hair and turned it into a tangled mess of curls on top of his head.

Seto smiled and nodded, watching him rush upstairs to their room, before walking over to the living room. He smiled once again at the mess the numerous books in the room, and set about trying to gather them into a less disarrayed arrangement.

However, as he picked up the book Yami had been copying his notes from, his eyes inevitably fell onto the open page of the diary Yami was told to keep by his psychiatrist, to record all of his feelings, thoughts and days' happenings in.

It was not voluntary; he wanted to keep Yami's privacy, and he always vowed to himself that he would never violate it. And he was successful for the past three years. Yet now he couldn't help but read the last few paragraphs written there.

"_Sometimes nowadays, I keep thinking back on how I used to think that the situation is hopeless and that I am no longer good for anything…that perhaps I should simply end it all and leave people behind and run away from thinking that they thought of me as a burden. _

_But now, with Seto beside me all the time like that…with his love and support. I am sure I was wrong back then. I feel that if I am not in Seto's life…or even Mokuba's or Téa's, I think it would not be the same for them…and that they too would not be happy. _

_I am glad I no longer think like that. I think now I can really start giving back what they have given me…and that is by simply believing that, in spite of all that happened, there are still so many things out there to enjoy. I can now leave out all that happened in the past and move on…and for that, I am happy."_

Seto smiled, closing the diary and keeping it in between the piles of notebooks and books. Just as he straightened, Yami came into the room, demanding to go to the Greek restaurant they had gone to on their first date.

Seto smiled and took his hand, "Alright, let's go then, otherwise we won't find a table."

Yami smiled mischievously at him. Seto stared at the happy, serene twinkle of amusement in those crimson eyes, and sighed internally in gratefulness, while Yami joked, "You'd just glare at people and demand they empty a proper table for us…"

"Ah, Yami, you know me too well," Seto said, smiling with an expression that mirrored Yami's.

So, joking and absolutely not caring about anything in the world at that moment, they got inside the car and Seto drove off to their destination…

* * *

the end

A/N: thank you once again for reading :D don't forget to let me know what you thought.

Hathor…


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